An Excise Department mobile squad seized 40 grams of brown sugar and 20 kg of ganja from an eatery in the Jharana Basti area here and arrested two persons for trading the banned items.
The officials, acting on a tipoff, conducted a raid on the restaurant and seized the contrabands, Khordha district Excise squad SP Sharat Bhanj said. While the squad arrested the hotel owner on the spot in the Kharavel Nagar area, it arrested Shaikh Yusuf on charge of supplying the contrabands.
However, the eatery owner said he had kept the bag from a customer and knew nothing about its contents. “A person had come to my restaurant regularly for three days to have meals. On the last visit, he had given me the bag to keep with me. I didn’t open it and I don’t know about its contents. I only sell cigarettes,” he said.
It may be noted that the police had busted a brown sugar racket operating in the Haladipada Basti a few days ego.