Balasore: Police busted a racket manufacturing spurious lubricants for vehicles in Sahadebkhunta area in Balasore Friday. Two persons involved in it were arrested. Police suspected that the owner of the house where lubricants of branded companies were being made is part of the racket.
Spurious lubricants worth Rs 5 lakh seized from them. Reports said this spurious lubricant making unit was run from the house of Sheikh Abdul Majid, about a half km from the police station for last 20 years.
Used lubricants were being filtered and laced with some chemicals. Later, the lubricants are packed in plastic bottles banded as Gulf, Hero, Castrol Pride and Servo.
The spurious lubricants were being supplied to Bhadrak, Mayurbhanj, Jajapur and Keonjhar district.
Police said, usually a bottle of 900 ml lubricants by a branded company is sold for Rs 320, but this spurious lubricants a sold for Rs 180.
Sales of Gulf lubricants began to fall in these areas. A special team of the company in Kolkota started an investigation into its plunging sales in Odisha.
The team had reached Balasore three months ago and collected samples of their lubricants from various shops.
The team came to know that the lubricants being sold under their brand name were fake. The team members faked themselves as customers and approached the people manufacturing the spurious lubricants.
Santosh Yadav, a member of the team, had filed a complaint at the Sahadevkunta police station.
Police carried out a raid and arrested Isub Khan (30) and Irshad Khan(18).
PNN
