Spurious ghee worth Rs 5 lakh seized
The pure ghee made from butter is mixed with refined oil which is illegal as doing this reduces its purity.
Hyderabad: Around 500 litres of spurious ghee worth Rs 5 lakh was seized by the Malkajgiri Special operations Team on Saturday night. The accused were caught red-handed mixing refined oil with essence powder to get ghee-like flavour and odour.
Basing on a tip off, the police officials raided a illegal duplicate ghee manufacturing unit in Kamalanagar under Kushaiguda police station limits, Rachakonda commissionerate. Special operation team inspector, G. Naveen Kumar said, “The accused M. Satish, 32, and Sk. Fayaaz, 35, have been doing this business since a year. The pure ghee made from butter is mixed with refined oil which is illegal as doing this reduces its purity. The essence powder mixed to create ghee-like colour and odour is also unhealthy.”
Police said that the accused were selling the ghee to roadside vendors, at cheaper rates. While the market price of the ghee is around Rs 400 per kg, the duo were selling the spurious product for Rs 200 for the same quantity.
The special operation team have seized 462 kg of ghee, 52 ghee packets amounting to 30 kg, 5 kg of refined oil, essence powder, 20 kg of butter and some ghee making equipment.