Two fake cement makers arrested in Ghaziabad, stocks seized
Ghaziabad, July 26 : The police have busted a gang of counterfeit cement manufacturers and recovered some tools, a truck and bags of fake cement bearing names of big brands in Ghaziabad, the police said on Thursday.
Two persons have also been arrested from the fake cement manufacturing site, while two others managed to flee.
Police officer Pradeep Kumar Tripathi told IANS that early on Thursday, he got the information about fake cement being manufactured on a large-scale in the city.
Based on the tip-off, he and his team raided the godown in a field belonging to one Sukhbir in Bamheta locality of the city, and arrested two persons -- Jayanti Prasad and Akram -- from there, Tripathi said.
During interrogation, Jayanti Prasad -- a resident of Shankar Vihar under Kavi Nagar Police Station area the city -- confessed to his crime, while Akram hails from Bamheta only.
According to Jayanti, the factory is owned by Akram, who used to buy discarded and moisturized bags of cement from Delhi, Haryana and Ghaziabad markets, mix ash and repack thus produced "cement" to sell under big brands names, including ACC, JK Cement and others, depending on the availability of empty bags.
Then they would sell the counterfeit cement in the market. The buyers were happy to get the cement at lesser rates, Akram said.
Akram had taken the godown on rent from Sukhbir.
The police recovered a Tata 407, some tools used for making cement, and 198 bags of half-made and ready cement.
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Assam bypolls: 13pc voting in 5 assembly seats till 9 AM
Guwahati (PTI): Nearly 13 per cent of 9.1 lakh electors cast their votes in the first two hours of polling on Wednesday during by-elections to five assembly constituencies in Assam, according to official data.
According to the Election Commission, approximately 12.55 per cent of 9,09,057 electors, including 4,54,963 women and 19 third gender, exercised their franchise in the first two hours till 9 AM to decide the fate of 34 candidates.
There are also 2,617 service voters in these five constituencies, where polling is taking place as per pre-delimitation data, an official said.
Bypolls are taking place in Dholai (SC), Sidli (ST), Bongaigaon, Behali and Samaguri assembly constituencies as these seats fell vacant with the representatives of them winning the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Bongaigaon recorded the highest turnout of 15.34 per cent, followed by Samaguri at 14.7 per cent, Sidli at 12.51 per cent, Behali at 11 per cent and Dholai at 9.15 per cent, ECI data showed.
"Voting is going on peacefully so far and we have not received any adverse report. People started coming to their respective booths from as early as 5:30 am. Long queues of voters were seen outside polling booths in most of the places," Assam Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Goel told PTI.
He said that there were reports of malfunctioning of EVMs in some booths during the mock polling, and those machines were replaced.
Most of the contesting candidates have voted in their respective booths during the first two hours of polling.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma appealed to the people of Behali, Samaguri, Dholai, Bongaigaon and Sidli to come out and actively take part in the bypolls.
"Your voice matters and the choice you make will determine the course of your constituency's development in the coming days," he said in a post on X.
Voting began at 7 AM and is scheduled to conclude at 5 PM.
Around 9,000 polling personnel have been engaged to have a smooth election across 1,078 polling stations in the five seats.
Webcasting is being done from 592 polling stations, while 11 booths have been made as model polling stations and 14 are being managed by all-women staff.
A total of 15 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), comprising about 1,500 personnel, have been deployed in all the polling stations, supported by Assam Police.
