Cellphones confiscated

PUNE, May 18: Mobile phone sets worth Rs 1.65 lakh were confiscated while being transported in a private vehicle into the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits without paying octroi at the post located at Pune Railway Station during the wee hours of Sunday.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Deepak Kapoor said that the elite task force was keeping constant vigil outside the Pune Railway Station and around Swargate area after gathering information that mobile phone sets belonging to the Motorola and Nokia variety were being unloaded into private vehicles to evade octroi.

The confiscated 20 mobile phone sets were to be delivered at Sterling Communications at Fergusson College Road and the courier, Niranjan Mantri, was caught transporting it in a Maruti Esteem. A fine of Rs 35,000 was imposed on the offenders, said Kapoor.