A 28-year-old woman shopkeeper was arrested for allegedly selling drugs and tobacco products to schoolchildren in central Delhi’s Baljeet Nagar on Tuesday. She was later granted bail, said the police.
The woman was caught red-handed as she sold cigarettes to two minor boys sent as decoy customers by the police.
The boys, aged 12 and 17, were among many schoolchildren who regularly bought these items from the woman.
“We learnt that cigarettes were being sold to minors in the area, which is illegal. There are a couple of schools in the area and the woman allegedly encouraged schoolchildren to buy cigarettes. Some students told us that on certain occasions, she allegedly sold them ganja (marijuana), which is a contraband,” said a police officer.
The police of Anand Parbat police station then started scouting for some of the underage customers who would pose as decoy customers and finally zeroed in on the two minor boys.
“We gave them currency notes of different denominations after noting down the serial numbers of those notes.The two went to the shop on Tuesday evening. One asked for a cigarette while the other asked for a packet of beedi and collected the items after paying her with the money we had given them,” said the officer.
As the children left, a police team visited the shop and arrested the woman whose name has not been disclosed.
“She was booked under Section 77 of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act and arrested. She was later granted bail and is now out,” said deputy commissioner of police (central) MS Randhawa.
This provision of the JJ Act was amended last year, making the sale of tobacco products to minors punishable by law. It attracts a jail term and a fine Rs 1 lakh.
Last month, a shopkeeper was arrested in Patel Nagar for allegedly selling cigarettes to minors. Then too, the police had roped in a minor boy and his father who conducted a sting and filmed the sale for evidence.