According to a senior GRP officer, the contraband was discovered in an abandoned sack and a shoulder bag placed beneath a seat in the train’s general compartment, and no passenger claimed ownership of the material.
The seizure follows a similar operation a few days earlier on the same train, when GRP teams recovered about 31 kg of gutkha concealed in three shoulder bags under seats, also without a claimant.
Earlier in the month, GRP officers seized 21 kg of the banned product from the Hyderabad‑Kanyakumari express after it reached Tiruchi railway junction, again with no identified owner.
GRP data show that from January to August this year, railway police across the Tiruchi, Madurai and Tirunelveli subdivisions confiscated a little over 1,220 kg of gutkha at stations including Tiruchi, Dindigul, Madurai, Virudhunagar, Tirunelveli, Nagercoil, Thoothukudi, Karaikudi and Thanjavur. The largest single haul was 471 kg at Virudhunagar, followed by 209 kg in Madurai and 119 kg in Tirunelveli, and 34 individuals – three of them women – have been named as accused.
Gutkha, pan masala containing tobacco and nicotine, is prohibited in Tamil Nadu, where its manufacture, storage, distribution and sale are illegal. Officials say the product is smuggled from states where it remains legal, often aboard inter‑state express trains that originate in northern and eastern parts of the country.
The GRP has set up dedicated teams that conduct random checks and act on specific intelligence, coordinating closely with the Railway Protection Force, local police and the Food Safety and Drug Administration. Confiscated goods are handed over to the Food Safety Department for disposal, and the police continue to monitor railway stations to curb further illegal movement.