Dehradun police arrested eight persons, including the owner, during a raid on a factory at laltappar in Doiwala on Friday, on the charge of packing and selling spurious cement using labels of branded cement manufacturing companies.
Police said that the factory owner had been selling the spurious cement at much cheaper rates as compared with those of the branded companies to the contractors working with construction agencies based in Dehradun and other parts of the state. “The fact that such a thing has been going on for months and the fake construction material is being used for constructing buildings and roads in earthquake prone Dehradun and elsewhere in the State is grim,” said lalit Dobhal, a senior citizen residing in Doiwala.
The accused have been identified as Ashok Kumar Gupta, the factory owner, resident of T-estate Colony, Banjarawala, Dilnawaz and Nazeem, natives of Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh), Prem Pal, Saddam, Gaffar, Ifrak and Mustkeem, natives of Amkeha (Haryana).
A case under sections 417/420/486 of IPC was registered against the accused in Doiwala Police Station. The accused were sent to Suddhowala jail after being presented in the court, said a Doiwala police station in-charge Sandeep Negi.
Doiwala police said they had been receiving complaints about spurious cement being sold with the labels of branded companies in laltappar area for the past few months. Subsequently, Dehradun SP (rural) GC Dhyani formed a team headed by Doiwala police station in-charge Negi. The team members conducted raids in the factory on Friday and found six labourers engaged in working on cement that was found to be spurious. The labels they were found using while packaging the spurious produce were of JP Cement and Ambuja Cement. Six labourers were arrested by the police. A truck laden with spurious cement was impounded during the raid, said police officer.
The team seized 500 bags with Ambuja Cement’s label and 2000 empty bags with the labels of Ambuja Cement and JP Cement. The police had also seized some equipment used to ready the spurious cement for sale from the factory building.
The factory owner while being grilled disclosed that he used to collect poor quality cement from godowns of various cement companies. He had hired labouers to make it sellable and to pack it in bags labelled with Ambuja Cement and JP Cement for sale in the market at rates much lower than those now prevailing in the markets.