Bhubaneswar: Police on Wednesday seized 200 grams of brown sugar worth Rs 30 lakh from two youths at Jatni. The two youths were subsequently arrested.

Acting on a tip-off, the police raided the area and nabbed Sk Abid, 22, and Sk Salman, 20. An officer said both the youths were acting as carriers and had procured the contraband from Jaleswar in Balasore district.

"They were supposed to deliver the contraband to Siba Das, a notorious peddler supplying brown sugar in Khurda and Bhubnaeswar. Further investigations are ongoing to verify the antecedents of the youths. We are also trying to nab the peddler in Balasore who sold the contraband to them," said a police officer.

Frequent seizure of brown sugar in Bhubaneswar has become a concern for the police.

Official statistics suggest that they police seized only 8.7 grams of brown sugar in Bhubnaeswar between 2011 and 2015. However, the seizure went up to around a kilogram between 2016 and 2017. The police said around 70 per cent of the seizure was made from the Haladi Padia slum in Laxmi Sagar police limits.

On July 17, excise sleuths from Cuttack intercepted a Scorpio and seized 250 grams of brown sugar and nabbed four men from Jaleswar. They were bringing the consignment to Haladi Padia.

Brown sugar is mostly smuggled into Odisha from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bengal. Small-time traders in the slum procure it from Balasore and adjoining areas and sell it in Bhubaneswar for huge profits.

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