Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate of Police carried out raids on a factory where soft drinks were being manufactured. According to sources, the unit operated without a valid license and its products were spurious and fake. The owner of the unit has been detained and being questioned.
On the basis of a tip-off, a joint team of Mancheswar Police and Special Squad of Bhubaneswar urban police district (UPD) raided the cold drink factory. The police seized packaging material, plastic bottles, machinery and raw material used to manufacture cold drinks. Further investigation, in this case, is under progress, a police official said.
“Though it is not duplicate, the products are fake which can easily deceive consumers. The setup is huge but they do not have a laboratory or a technician. The product is not safe, laboratory reports will validate further. Their license is not a proper one,” said Pratikshya Das Mohapatra, Food Safety Officer, Bhubaneswar.
“We had come to verify the details and discovered that a huge quantity of cold drinks has been stocked. They are bottling cold drinks with similar names as the branded ones available in the market. They are not doing any laboratory test and adding checicals and soda at their freewill. This is an act of cheating people,” Sanjeev Satpathy, ACP, Special Squad, Bhubaneswar.
The products were supplied to rural areas of Odisha. The police have sealed the unit and sent the samples for tests. Further action will be taken once the test reports are available, added Satpathy.
