A major food safety operation in Delhi carried out on Friday laid bare an alleged racket involved in repackaging expired branded food products by replacing their original manufacturing and expiry dates with forged labels. The police have arrested seven persons, including the owner of the company at the centre of the probe, while food products valued at around Rs 20 lakh have been seized, according to officials.

The joint raid, conducted on the premises of M/s Westend Corporation Pvt Ltd in Okhla Industrial Area Phase II by Delhi Police, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Badarpur and NGO Mission Mukti.

Tip-off about child labour leads to breakthrough

As per the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), the operation was initially conducted following a tip-off about alleged employment of child labour at the factory. Although officials involved in the operation did not stumble across child labourers during the inspection, they allegedly unearthed a large-scale operation in which expired and near-expiry food products were being relabelled and were being repackaged before being returned to the market.

The investigating police personnel claim the accused procured expired or nearly expired products of reputed brands at heavily discounted prices. They allegedly utilised chemical thinners to erase the original manufacturing and expiry dates before printing fresh details using specialised equipment.

The forged labels allegedly displayed new manufacturing dates, expiry dates, batch numbers, barcodes and Maximum Retail Prices (MRPs), making the products appear authentic and fit for sale.

Thousands of expired goods seized

The stock seized by the police included a wide range of consumer goods like soft drinks, health drinks, packaged fruit juices, instant noodles and ghee. Police believe the tampered products were distributed through wholesale markets and e-commerce platforms and were also intended for export, raising humongous concerns over consumer safety and food quality.

During the course of the raid, the teams also recovered specialised printing machines, sealing equipment, customised stamps and chemical solvents allegedly used to change product labels, suggesting the existence of a well-organised illegal repackaging facility.

Probe deepens after arrests

All the accused were booked under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), pertaining to cheating and the sale of unsafe food products. The arrested accused include the company’s owner, Darshan Singh Sachdeva (70), manager Nitesh Bhardwaj, accountant Narender Kumar, machine operator Kapil, warehouse keeper Lucky Ojha and supervisors Prem Yadav and Pawan Kumar Yadav.

According to police, further probe is underway to identify the wider distribution network and ascertain the full scale of the alleged operation.