The special squad of the Commissionerate Police on Wednesday morning busted a gutkha manufacturing unit run at Jagannath Nagar under the laxmisagar police limits here and arrested nine persons after conducting a raid on the illegal 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 belonging to Uttar Pradesh, had carried out manufacturing of eight sacks of gutkha per day that worth around `12 lakh.
Police said the owner of the unit S Chand operates from Uttar Pradesh and manager Sabir Pradhan runs the unit in Odisha.
During the raid, the police have seized sacks of finished product, besides raw materials and two machines used for manufacture of gutkha. The unit was preparing duplicate gutkha packets with the brand name Pan Parag. They were importing raw materials from Kanpur in UP and Delhi, special squad sources said.
They used to carry the stuff on a Tata Magic vehicle and sell it in Khordha and Nayagarh districts, said the police.
Bhubaneswar Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Satyabrata Bhoi said the police interrogated arrested persons about where they used to purchase raw material from to manufacture the banned stuff. “We are verifying whether they have any links with inter-State gang members,” said Bhoi.