Fake hybrid seeds seized, one held

Sadullapur police in Gaibandha seized 300 sacks of fake hybrid boro seeds and arrested one person from the spot on Saturday.Photo: STAR

Sadullapur police on Saturday recovered 300 sacks of 'fake' hybrid boro seeds from a godown and arrested one person in this connection.
Following a tip-off, a contingent of police raided the godown of Sujon Seed Store at a market at Hamindpur near Sadullapur upazila town and seized the seeds while the workers were packing those in fake BADC bags.
Police arrested Ratan Kumar Sarkar, 20, a worker at the godown and seized empty bags along with BADC labels. Police also recovered a packing machine from the spot.
Sensing police presence, the owner of the seed store, Kartik Chandra Sarkar, fled from his residence-cum-godown.
Kartik Chandra had been packing inferior variety of boro seeds in bags using BADC labels and selling those at high prices in local markets for long, cheating the innocent farmers, said Abdul Jalil Sarkar, OC of Sadullapur police station.
During the start of this year's boro season, the owner of the seed store opened a repacking factory in his godown for making windfall profit by selling low-quality seeds, said Shaheen Reza, operation officer of Sadullapur police station.
Police said, arrestee Ratan Kumar confessed that they had been packing inferior variety boro seeds and selling those as BADC quality seeds for long in the local markets.
The accused had no permission from BADC for packing boro seeds. Because of this, farmers will be cheated and production of crop will decline, said Gonesh Chandra Saha, assistant agriculture officer in Sadullapur upazila.
They were packing local BR-28 in printed BADC bags to sell those as quality seeds, he added.