Food items, including various edible oils, worth Rs. 4.82 lakh have been confiscated by police from a godown in Maharashtra's Thane district after it was discovered that they were reportedly produced and stored using a bogus licence.
The authorities conducted a raid at the godown located at Daighar on Thursday, and a case was registered against its four owners, he said. A leading manufacturer of asafoetida approached the police with a complaint that the accused were manufacturing the products with a fake licence. After that, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) officials raided the godown, the official of Shil-Daighar police station said.
Products seized by the FDA and police officials included compounded asafoetida, edible gum, mustard oil, refined cotton seed oil, refined rice bran oil, as well as some brown liquid. He claimed that they manufactured the products using a phoney FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) permit.
A case was registered against the four owners of the godown under various sections of the Food Safety and Standards Act and also under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 420 (cheating), 34 (common intention), the police said.