Jaipur : Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has recovered a total of 8500 e-cigarettes from two locations in C-Scheme and Vidyadhar Nagar in a search operation that lasted two days (Wednesday and late Thursday night), which is said to be worth more than Rs 1.25 crore. DRI produced Sunil Kumar Sharma, who sold banned e-cigarettes, in the court, after which he has been sent to judicial custody. According to sources, the accused was smuggling them from Dubai, Malaysia and China and selling them in Jaipur through online and home delivery. It is worth noting that the central government has banned the sale, storage and advertisement of e-cigarettes, but in most cases in the country, it is available online and through local vendors.
What is an e-cigarette
E-cigarette is a type of electronic nicotine delivery system device. This device runs on battery and delivers nicotine to the body. E-cigarette is not filled with tobacco like normal cigarette and neither it needs to be lit to smoke. Instead of tobacco, it is filled with liquid nicotine in a cartridge. The cartridge can be refilled when it gets finished. There is an LED bulb at the other end of the cigarette which lights up when you take a puff. This liquid nicotine gets heated and turns into vapor. In this way, people who smoke e-cigarettes inhale vapor instead of smoke.
Health Ministry had sent notice
Taking forward the action initiated against websites selling e-cigarettes some time ago, the Union Health Ministry had asked all the states to share information about any complaint received in this regard on the central portal. The ministry had sent notices to many websites and instructed them to stop the sale of e-cigarettes.
