Joint Director of Agriculture Chandrashekar and team raid poultry farm opposite a burial ground

Mysore/Mysuru: Officers of Agriculture Department busted a spurious fertiliser manufacturing unit at a poultry farm opposite burial ground in Metagalli here yesterday and seized several equipment and articles. The accused running the racket have gone at large.

Acting on a tip off over spurious fertiliser manufacturing unit functioning at a poultry farm, a team of Agriculture Department Officers led by Joint Director of Agriculture Chandrashekar raided the premises and unearthed the racket.

The unit was being run by K.N. Mahesh, a known offender against whom similar cases have been registered at various Police Stations in the city, Chandrashekar told Star of Mysore.

The fertiliser called Muriate of Potash was being duplicated using salt, different colours, sacks/ bags of reputed fertiliser brands and sewing machine. All these articles have been seized by Agriculture Officers during the raid and the samples of spurious fertiliser have been sent to laboratory for examination, he added.

“Our Officers regularly inspect the abandoned buildings in the outskirts to look for any illegal activities related to agriculture. During such inspection, we received an information about spurious fertiliser unit and raided the spot only to find that ‘Muriate of Potash’ was being duplicated,” explained Chandrashekar.

According to Metagalli Police, learning about the raid, the accused fled from the spot and action is being taken to arrest them.

Continuing, Chandrashekar said: “those involved in the racket were planning to sell spurious fertiliser at Kodagu, Sakleshpur in Hassan and several other districts. Three First Information Reports (FIRs) have already been filed against the accused involved in the racket. We have requested the City Police Commissioner to take suitable action against him.”

Nine cases of spurious fertiliser manufacturing unit have been registered in the city and FIRs have been filed in seven cases. The samples have been sent for test in two cases.

Deputy Director of Agriculture Dhananjay, Krishna of Vigilance Wing of Agriculture Department,  Assistant Director of Agriculture Madhulatha and Agriculture Officers Jeevan and Karthik participated in the raid.