Brown sugar worth Rs 1.30cr seized in Odisha, MBA student arrested

The Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha Crime Branch has seized brown sugar worth over 1.30 crore from a management student in Balasore district, police said on Tuesday.

The MBA student has been arrested, a police officer said.

Acting on a tip-off, a six-member STF team carried out a raid in Sahadevkhunta bus stand area here on Monday and seized the contraband item, weighing 1.325 kg, the officer said.

The accused has been identified as Sheikh Riazuddin, he said.

"Preliminary investigation suggests that the accused is a third year student in a management college in Bhubaneswar.

"The arrested person will be interrogated to identify and nab the others involved in the racket," STF SP P K Bhoi said.

The STF is trying to find out the kingpin of the racket and the receiver who was supposed to get the brown sugar from the middleman, police said.

The STF has seized 16.711 kg of brown sugar and arrested 41 persons in this connection since March, police said.