Overview
- Early July joint raids by the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration and Pune Rural Police targeted sites in Manchar, Pune, Thane, Solapur, Jalna and other districts and led to the arrest of 13 people.
- Officials say the network mixed detergents, shampoo, palm oil, emulsifiers and skimmed milk/whey powders to produce synthetic milk and then blended it with genuine milk for sale.
- Authorities seized adulteration material and assets reported variously at about ₹1.47–1.48 crore up to figures above ₹2 crore, destroyed roughly 20,000–24,632 litres of suspected adulterated milk and collected dozens of samples for laboratory testing.
- Regulators have filed criminal cases under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Food Safety and Standards Act, suspended or cancelled multiple food licences, and ordered several units to stop operations.
- Investigators are now tracing financial records, electronic evidence and interstate links to map the full supply chain from chemical suppliers to collection centres and to assess potential health exposure to consumers.