Crime & Safety
Family Pantry Owner Charged With Selling Illegal Fireworks
The following information was supplied by the Geneva Police Department. Where arrests or charges are mentioned, it does not indicate a conviction.
Geneva police arrested Chiragkumar Chavda, 39, of Streamwood on Dec. 27 for offering retail sale of fireworks at his business, the Family Pantry, 1409 E. State St., Geneva police reports said.
According to the complaint in the 16th Circuit Court, Chavda violated Section 2, Act 35, Chapter 425 of the Illinois Complied Statutes for selling a quantity of fireworks not authorized in the Fireworks Act.
The police continuation report says Geneva officers responded to a report of shots or fireworks fired in the area of Longview Drive and Hill Avenue around 2:35 p.m. Dec. 27. The officers located several subjects who admitted lighting firecrackers that caused the noise. When questioned, the subjects said they purchased the firecrackers at the Family Pantry on East State Street.
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Officers went to the pantry and made contact with Chiragkumar, who owns the business and admitted to selling the fireworks to the subjects who had shot off the fireworks that day.
Chiragkumar showed police a cabinet with closed doors concealed from view from most customers, where officers discovered some “novelty” fireworks as well as some that could not be legally sold in the state of Illinois. The illegal fireworks were inventoried, photographed, packed and placed in evidence to be held for court, reports said.
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The report does not list the types of fireworks that were confiscated but notes they had been marked with price tags. Police did not confiscate the novelty fireworks.
Chavda has a court date of Feb. 19 at the Kane County Branch Court.
Patch reports on law enforcement activity in Geneva, using information provided by official agencies. Persons charged with a crime, or issued a citation for violation of a local ordinance, are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. If you or a family member are charged with a crime or cited for a violation, and the charge or citation is subsequently adjudicated, we encourage you to notify Geneva editor Rick Nagel at rickn@patch.com and we will do follow-up reporting on the case.
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