70 tonnes of urea intended for smuggling seized in Erode

Erode: Officials from the agriculture department and the civil supplies-CID seized 70 tonnes of urea intended for smuggling, from a private warehouse at C Mettupalayam village near Chithode, here in the early hours of Saturday. Four people including the warehouse owner have been detained for questioning.
Following a tip-off officials conducted a surprise inspection at the warehouse around 1am. M Thamilselvi, joint director (JD), agriculture department, Erode led the inspection with assistant directors (AD) Kalaiselvi and Samuel, and agriculture officers Jayachandran and Ram Jeevanya.
"During inspection we found that the warehouse operators had procured the urea which was distributed to farmers for subsidised rates through various cooperative societies across the state, and repackaged it into 50kg bags," Thamilselvi said. The seized urea is provided by the central and state governments to farmers. A 45kg bag of urea, which costs 1,900 is supplied to farmers for a subsidised price of 266.
Preliminary investigations revealed that Ahmed Ali, 48, from Bhavani, who owns the warehouse, had been collecting the urea from farmers for the last eight months and hoarding it. "The urea was meant to be transported to Kerala via trucks, where they were intending on selling it on the black market for over 2,000 per bag," said a police official from the civil supplies-CID.
A case has been registered, and further investigation is on.