Two traders involved in selling of sub-standard cement were arrested by the Madion police. Nearly 3,000 sacks of such material were seized from the godown of the accused who admitted to have been operating the racket since last couple of months.

Circle Officer (CO) Aliganj Balwant Kumar Chowdhary said the arrests were made following a tip-off that Satguru Traders, situated in Keshav Nagar near Purania crossing, were selling cement of reputed brands after mixing sand. The accused, identified as Ashish Maurya and Raman, are both residents of Saadatganj locality. They reportedly mixed an average of 5-7kg of sand in a cement sack weighing 50kg. The accused admitted to having sold an average of 1,000 sacks of cement per day.

As per general market rates, an average quality cement sack of 50kg is sold at Rs 225 per bag. If the accused mixed 5 kilogramme of sand in each sack, they would have pocketed an average of Rs 45 per sack. Selling 1,000 cement bags per day, the gang pocketed an average of Rs 45,000 per day.

"Though half a dozen labourers were also rounded up from the go down, they don’t seem to be aware of what the racket was all about. We may let them free, depending upon what the accused reveal during interrogation," CO Aliganj, who headed the raid, said.

Police were also investigating if other traders in the city were also running such rackets. "We suspect that some other traders are also into similar business," confirmed CO Aliganj. Police were now on the lookout for the associate of the two arrested accused, who too was involved in the racket. Identified as Sunil, he too is a resident of the old city area. An FIR was lodged in connection with the incident with the Aliganj police and 3,000 bags of sub-standard cement and a machine to seal the bags after mixing sand was also seized from the premises of the accused.