Cement racket busted, five held

By Our Special Correspondent

SALEM, DEC. 2.The personnel of the Civil Supplies CID here have busted a racket in trading fake cement. Officials swooped down upon the owners of two pulverising mills and three other conduits, and seized 550 bags of fake cement stored in the godowns.

According to Mr. Periannan, Inspector of Police, Civil Supplies CID, department officials had been on alert following complaints (in regard to supply of fake cement) received by the Inspector General of Police (Food Cell CID), Mr. Radhakrishna Raja, and the Salem District Collector, Mr. Md. Nasimuddin.

The racket came to light when personnel detained one Raju (50) of Kakkan Colony in Udayapatti here, when he was carrying a cement bag on his moped.

On enquiry it was found that the cement, which had lost its validity period, was being taken to a contractor.

On his information two other persons - Draupathi (60) and Chellappan (45) - who abetted the illegal trade were also rounded up.

It was learnt that they in collusion with the owners of two pulversing units - Chauthri (24) of Maniyanur and Ganesh (24) of Annadanapatti (who have also been arrested) - used to reprocess the time-barred cement for circulation.

The culprits used to procure outdated and spoiled cement from the factories in bulk at a throw-away price of Rs. 350 per tonne.

This would be again ground to fine powder in the pulverising units and packed in 50 kg bags, before being distributed to the contractors at the rate of Rs. 110 per bag.

The contractors in turn would mix the fake commodity with the original cement in their constructions.

It is suspected that the racket had been going on for the past many years, as there used to be good demand for the spurious stuff.

Mr. Periannan said there were over 1,000 pulverising units in Salem district, and following this incident, a vigil would be kept on them all.

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Section  : Southern States
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