BUSTED: Factory Made Fake Spices By Mixing Donkey Dung, Hay

Police in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, on Monday night, raided a factory involved making adulterated spices of local brands using spurious ingredients including donkey dung, acids and hay (bhusa) and more than 300 kg of counterfeit spices. The factory owner, identified as Anoop Varshney, has been arrested.

Varshney is the ‘Mandal Sah Prabhari’ of Hindu Yuva Vahini, an organisation founded by UP CM Yogi Adityanath in 2002. In his factory in Navipur area of Hathras, the police, during the raid, found spices, including red chilli powder, coriander powder, spice mix (garam masala) and turmeric, were being adulterated with donkey dung, inedible colours, acids and hay (bhusa), according to a report by The Times of India.

Police have sent 27 samples of the spices to a laboratory for testing. Meanwhile, Varshney has been sent to judicial custody under CrPC Section 151 (arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offences), joint magistrate Prem Prakash Meena told TOI. Once the results of the lab tests come in, a case will be filed under the Food Safety and Standards Act, Meena added.

Meanwhile, the UP Special Task Force (STF) busted a racket selling tatkal tickets of the Indian Railways and arrested its mastermind, identified as Saddam Hussain Ansari, from Basti district.

The STF officials have confiscated 245 train tickets, including 243 tatkal tickets used in the past, two laptops, a mobile phone and some documents. During questioning, Ansari told the police that he was a part of the inter-state gang, which was active in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal and other states.