CUTTACK: Commissionerate police on Friday busted an adulterated spice manufacturing unit and a shop from where the items were sold in Malgodown, the largest wholesale market for essential commodities here in the city.
The owner of the units, Arun Kumar Gantayat (52) of Beleswar within Madhupatna police limits was detained. Acting on a tip-off on the manufacturing and sale of different kinds of adulterated spices, a team of Malgodown police conducted the raid with the help of food safety officials of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and stumbled upon huge quantities of packaged spices including turmeric, chilli, coriander powder and raw materials including insect-infested rice, spurious chemicals, colour and machinery for processing and packaging.
Apart from the seizure of 24 bags of finished spice, huge quantities of raw materials were seized from the unit. Both the manufacturing and wholesale units located adjacently were running without any licence and authorisation from competent authorities.
“The accused was involved in manufacturing different spices by mixing and grinding small quantities of substandard ingredients with rotten rice, spurious colours and chemicals at his manufacturing unit. He used to sell the spices from his wholesale shop at cheap prices.