Hyderabad: 1500 kg adulterated ginger garlic paste seized from factory

The company was making ginger garlic pastes in unhygienic conditions using adulterants and was keeping the pastes in old plastic tubs for days, before packing them.

Hyderabad: A ginger garlic paste production unit was raided and 1500 kg of adulterated paste was seized by the city police in Bowenpally, Secunderabad. Eight individuals working at the unit were arrested.

The commissioner’s task force and the Bowenpally police jointly raided ‘Sony Ginger Garlic Paste’ in Kharkana at Rajarajeswari Nagar, Old Bowenpally, Secunderabad. Officials found the company was using substandard raw materials to make the paste and was using adulterants in its production.

While the police arrested 8 workers from the premises, the owner of ‘Sony Ginger Garlic Paste’, Mohammed Shakeel Ahmed is absconding. Efforts are underway to arrest him, a statement from the police said.

The arrested have been identified as Mohd Sameer Ansari, 33, Mohd Gulfraz, 32, Mohd Mukthaar, 27, Ranjith Kumar, 19, Monu Kumar, 20, Birval Sah, 19, Inayath, 32, Mahesh Kumar, 20.

Other than the adulterated ginger garlic paste, the police seized 55 kg of citric acid, 480 kg of damaged raw garlic, a mixture machine, a grinder machine, a weighing machine, and other materials.

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According to the police, the absconding Shakeel Ahmed was running the business in Old Bowenpally. The arrested Sameer Ansari was working as the manager while Gulfraz was a distributor. Mukthaar was the cook cum assistant manager of the unit, and Ranjith Kumar, Sonu Kumar, Birval Sah, Inayath and Mahesh Kumar were workers in the facility.

The police found that the company was making ginger garlic pastes in unhygienic conditions using adulterants and was keeping the pastes in old plastic tubs for days, before packing them in plastic containers. The unit was selling these products at wholesale rates to food and beverage institutions across the city and in India, via wholesale e-commerce websites.