Hyderabad, Feb 24(TNT): The Commissioner’s Task Force, West Zone, along with Sanath Nagar police, busted a tea powder adulteration racket and arrested a trader involved in manufacturing and supplying adulterated tea powder using synthetic chemicals, a police release said here on Tuesday.
The accused was identified as Jagannath Bishnoi (33), a tea businessman and resident of Fathenagar, Hyderabad.
Acting on credible information, police raided his premises within Sanath Nagar limits and found him adulterating tea powder to earn illegal profits, said Gaikwad Vaibhav Raghunath, Deputy commissioner of Police, Commissioner’s Task force, Hyderabad in a release here.
During interrogation, the accused confessed that he used cocopeat mixed with jaggery water and synthetic food colours such as Sunset Yellow and Tartrazine Orange to mimic the appearance of genuine tea powder.
The accused prepared adulterated tea powder by mixing low-quality tea dust, inferior tea granules and colour-treated cocopeat, and supplied it to local tea stalls and dealers while falsely marketing it as genuine tea powder, the police official said.
During the raid, police seized 120 kg of adulterated tea powder, 30 kg of natural tea powder, 138 kg of cocopeat mixture, synthetic colours, a weighing machine, domestic gas cylinder, jaggery boxes, carry bags and other adulteration equipment.
The police official warned that food adulteration poses a serious threat to public health and said strict legal action will be taken against those involved in such activities. The public has been advised to purchase tea powder only from authorised and reputed sellers and report suspected adulteration cases.
TNT TS
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