Late on the night of June 9, a Food and Drug Administration team conducting a raid in Rahimpur village, Waluj — on the outskirts of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) — narrowly escaped serious harm when members of the gutkha mafia drove a black Scorpio SUV directly at the officials. The vehicle singled out a female FDA officer who had just helped secure 25 sacks of contraband tobacco from an Eicher truck. Two suspects were detained and a case of attempted murder was filed.
A Violent Response to an Aggressive Crackdown
The attack was no isolated incident. It was a calculated response to Maharashtra’s most determined campaign yet against the illegal gutkha and pan masala trade — one that has escalated sharply under FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe’s direction since late May 2026.
Gutkha — a chewing tobacco product combining areca nut, tobacco, and flavourings — has been banned in Maharashtra since 2012 under food safety regulations. It is a known cause of oral cancer and other serious health conditions. Despite the ban, the trade has persisted through a parallel supply chain of manufacturers, distributors, and retailers willing to absorb enforcement risk. Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Marathwada more broadly have long served as key distribution nodes, given their location at the junction of Vidarbha and Konkan trade routes.
Scale of the June Operations
Since May 30, the FDA has systematically swept all seven divisions of the state. In the first two days of the drive, 32 people were arrested and 26 establishments sealed. By June 8, a fresh wave of action added 33 more arrests, with inspectors examining over 120 establishments and seizing goods worth more than ₹8.56 crore — including over 8.10 lakh kilograms of suspected adulterated food items such as khoya, jaggery, edible oil, and energy drinks. In the first five days of June alone, 195 raids across the state resulted in 192 arrests.
In Marathwada specifically, 20 raids between June 4 and 22 — spanning Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Beed, Jalna, and Hingoli districts — led to 14 arrests and the confiscation of crores worth of contraband goods.
What This Means for Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Residents
The persistence of the illegal gutkha trade is not an abstract policy problem — it is a direct public health threat. Aurangabad has among the highest rates of oral cancer in Marathwada, a pattern closely linked to widespread gutkha use that cuts across income groups but falls especially hard on daily wage earners and youth. Cheap and easily available at every pan shop, gutkha has entrenched itself in the city’s informal economy despite the legal ban.
When mafia operatives are willing to risk attempted-murder charges to protect a single truckload of contraband, it signals the enormous margins involved in the trade and how far enforcement has lagged. FDA Minister Narhari Zirwal personally called the female officer who was targeted to check on her welfare and stated publicly that strict consequences would follow for those responsible. Police registered charges including attempt to murder, obstruction of government officials, and criminal intimidation. Investigators also obtained video evidence of one suspect fleeing with the truck.
Outlook
The FDA has announced plans to launch a mobile app and a toll-free helpline to let citizens report food safety violations directly — an attempt to supplement field enforcement with community-level intelligence. Whether that changes the ground reality in Marathwada’s wholesale gutkha networks is an open question. The infrastructure of the illegal trade has had more than a decade to entrench itself since the 2012 ban, and enforcement has historically moved in waves rather than as sustained pressure.
Commissioner Mundhe has indicated operations will continue. For residents of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, the coming weeks will reveal whether this crackdown is a turning point or another temporary disruption to a trade that has so far proved resilient.
Sources: ETV Bharat, Free Press Journal, Free Press Journal (gutkha drive)
This report was compiled and written with AI assistance from publicly reported sources, and reviewed for accuracy.