Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, Sep 23:

Acting on a tip-off, the special squad of the commissionerate police busted a gutkha manufacturing unit run at Jagannath Nagar under Laxmisagar police limits in the Odisha capital and arrested nine persons, including the owner of the unit following raid, early this morning.

Machines used to manufacture spurious gutkha (OST Photo) Machines used to manufacture spurious gutkha (OST Photo)

"We are interrogating the owner and the manager about where they used to purchase raw material from to manufacture the banned stuff. Whether they have any links with inter-state gang members is to be verified, " said Bhubaneswar Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Satyabrata Bhoi.

Police said the owner of the unit, identified as S Chand who hails from Uttar Pradesh and manager Sabir Pradhan of Odisha, were among those arrested in the case.

The police have seized sacks of finished product, besides raw materials and two machines used for manufacture of gutkha.

During the raid, police have seized duplicate gutkha packets with the brand name Pan Parag manufactured in the unit.

The accused persons - identified as Subash Burma,  Rakesh Soni, Kailash Chourasia, Anil Kumar, Rajendra Saha, Amrit Saha, Sk Farat, Sunil Kumar and Sandeep Chourasia -most of them from Uttar Pradesh, indulged in manufacturing of 8-9 sacks of gutkha per day that worth Rs 15 lakh.

Each employee in the unit worked for 14 hours that starting from 6 pm to 8 am every day to manufacture these products. They brought the raw materials from Kanpur in UP and Delhi, special squad sources said.

They used to carry the stuff on a Tata Magic vehicleand sell it in Khordha and Nayagarh districts.