Police Seize Materials Worth Over Rs 10 Cr From Illegal Gutkha Production Unit In Odisha’s Berhampur

Berhampur: Police have seized gutkha and machinery worth over Rs 10 crore from an illegal manufacturing unit in Odisha’s Berhampur city.

Following reliable information, a police team conducted raid on the illegal gutkha manufacturing factory at Autonagar under Golanthara police station on the outskirts of the city on Thursday. During the raid, the team came to know about another illegal unit at Haladiapadar under the same police limits.

As the police team went to the building there and carried out search, they found huge amount of manufactured gutkha and raw materials besides the production machinery.

According to Berhampur SP Sarvana Vivek M, raw materials consisting of 30 ton of betelnuts, 10 ton of tobacco leaves, 7 ton of different spices, 5o bags of gutkha, 1,000 rolls of packing papers besides 8 packing machines, 12 mixture machines, 12 fry machines and other equipment worth more than Rs 10 crore were seized during the raid.

The police have also arrested two supervisors of the unit, identified as M Brahmam of Badabazaar and Subrat Kumar Behera of Hilpatna, both in Berhampur city.

Though the police have registered 3 cases in this regard, the owner of both units, P Gopal Krishna, who is a reputed businessman of the city, has not been arrested so far.

It may be noted that a case relating to illegal gutkha production was filed against Krishna at Gosainuagaon police station in 2016. The case is still pending in the court.