Ghaziabad, Jul 26 (IANS): The police have busted a gang of counterfeit cement manufacturers and recovered some tools, a truck and bags of fake cement bearing names of big brands in Ghaziabad, the police said on Thursday.

Two persons have also been arrested from the fake cement manufacturing site, while two others managed to flee.

Police officer Pradeep Kumar Tripathi told IANS that early on Thursday, he got the information about fake cement being manufactured on a large-scale in the city.

Based on the tip-off, he and his team raided the godown in a field belonging to one Sukhbir in Bamheta locality of the city, and arrested two persons -- Jayanti Prasad and Akram -- from there, Tripathi said.

During interrogation, Jayanti Prasad -- a resident of Shankar Vihar under Kavi Nagar Police Station area the city -- confessed to his crime, while Akram hails from Bamheta only.

According to Jayanti, the factory is owned by Akram, who used to buy discarded and moisturized bags of cement from Delhi, Haryana and Ghaziabad markets, mix ash and repack thus produced "cement" to sell under big brands names, including ACC, JK Cement and others, depending on the availability of empty bags.

Then they would sell the counterfeit cement in the market. The buyers were happy to get the cement at lesser rates, Akram said.

Akram had taken the godown on rent from Sukhbir.

The police recovered a Tata 407, some tools used for making cement, and 198 bags of half-made and ready cement.