Spurious spice factories busted in Delhi, 25 tonne of spices seized

The Delhi Police’s crime branch has busted two spurious factories in the national capital and seized 25 tonnes of fake cumin and black pepper and 40 tonnes of raw material, an official said on Friday.

Special commissioner of police, crime, Ravindra Singh Yadav said specific input was received that spurious factories manufacturing adulterated spices were operating in the capital's outskirts.

This information was further developed through human intelligence as well as technical surveillance.

Accordingly, a trap was laid and a tempo was intercepted in front of a warehouse located at Jindpur village.

“It was found loaded with 25 bags (15 bags of cumin and 10 of black pepper seeds). Bagesh Gupta, 39, sitting in the tempo, introduced himself as the owner of the cargo and was interrogated.

"He admitted that the consignment of the said seeds is totally adulterated and he was going to deliver it in the market. Thereafter, at the instance of Gupta, a warehouse was busted, where huge quantities of fake cumin, black pepper seeds and other raw materials and spices were also recovered," said Yadav.

A team of the officials from the city government’s Department of Food & Safety, was called to the spot and they took samples and carried out further proceedings.

"The recovered bags of fake cumin and black pepper seeds and other spices and tools and machines were seized. The said accused has been taken in police custody and further investigation is still in progress," the special CP said.

During the interrogation, Gupta disclosed that he entered into the business of adulteration of spices specially cumin and black pepper around five years ago. “Earlier, he used to do this business in Gujarat and two years ago, he shifted to Delhi. He purchases raw material for preparing adulterated spices from Kanpur and Rajasthan and further sells it in Khari Baoli (Delhi), Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), and Gujarat," the official said.