With the arrest of two persons, the police today claimed to have busted a spurious health drink manufacturing racket in Odisha's Kendrapara district.
The racket, thriving on manufacturing fake glucose-based beverages, was active in Derabish and Pattamundai areas, the police said.
Acting on a tip-off, raids were conducted and spurious products of a popular glucose health drink manufacturer were seized from the fake units, Superintendent of Police Rabi Naranyan Behera said.
The spurious packaged products displayed the name of well-known brand and was marketed manly in rural areas of the district.
The racketeers Jiban Das and Umesh Patra who were arrested yesterday said that they were carrying the illicict trade since past one-and-a-half year.
While Jiban operated from Pokhariapada village, Patra had his area of operation at Haladibasanta village, the police said.
A search is on to arrest the mastermind of the racket.
Meanwhile, customers were being requested to crosscheck the genuineness of the glucose-based beverages and were asked to immediately inform the police if they had any doubt about the quality of the product, the SP said.
The arrested persons were booked under several sections of the IPC, provisions of Food Adulteration Act, sections of Copy Right Act and sections of Trade Mark Act.
They were later remanded to jail custody yesterday after their bail application was rejected, the police added.
