Suspects in fertilizer racket held

Sandasen MARASINGHE

An errant trader was arrested in Kekirawa along with two others who were repacking 57 fertilizer bags for sale which were issued by the government to farmers at a concessionary rate of Rs 350.

According to the Police, a 50 kg fertilizer bag is bought by the traders at a rate of around Rs 800 from farmers and sold at Rs 3,500 after repacking.

The Kekirawa Police on a tip off arrested three persons at Theruwewa, Nochchikulama in Kekirawa, while they were repacking the fertilizer bags.

The suspect trader is a resident of Ganewalpola in Kekirawa.

Police said that when they raided the suspects, they had already repacked 37 bags.

The Police had seized all the fertilizer bags along with the empty and repacked bags.

The fertilizer had been repacked into empty bags, other than the bags issued by the government.

The Police had also seized the bag sealing machine used by the suspects.

The Police said that the same trader had been involved in the same trades in the Valachchen area some time back and had been running the illegal business for over a considerable period.

Kekirawa Magistrate Srinith Wijesekara, ordered the remand of the suspects until January 26.

A group of police led by OIC of the Environment Unit of Kekirawa Police I P Lansakara, conducted the raid on the instructions of Kekirawa Police OIC I P Kapila Abeyratne and ASP P Jayawardena. Kekirawa Police are conducting further investigations.