June 30,(Mid-day): A milkman from Mulund was arrested for selling adulterated milk in packets sourced from garbage bins and filled with a concoction of 3 parts milk and 10 parts unclean water

If you thought buying packaged, branded milk was a sure safeguard against adulteration, think again. The Mulund police have arrested a local milkman for selling branded milk which had been heavily diluted with impure water.

The accused would not only buy milk packets with the sole intention of mixing and then reselling them, he would also pick up used packets from garbage bins, fill them to sell to unsuspecting customers. The accused has been identified as Krushna Chandya Jala (35), a resident of Vijaya Nagar in Mulund.

He would buy packets of milk from brands such as Amul, Mahananda and Gokul and would then dilute it with unsafe water, sometimes adding as much as 10 parts water to 3 parts milk. He would also visit tea shops and ask them for empty milk bags, or pick up used packets from garbage bins and then fill them with the contaminated milk.
An officer from the Mulund police station said, “Jala has been in this business for more than a year. He would convert 30 litres of milk into 100 litres.”

Absconding partner

Cops further alleged that Jala had an accomplice, who has been identified as Raghu and is still absconding. Raghu was the one who would collect the empty milk bags and supply them to Jala. After they washed the bags and filled them with the adulterated milk, they would reseal the packets and sell them to other milk vendors.

“We had information that the accused has been mixing milk at his residence and he was supplying the milk to a hotel and several vendors at the nearby Vijaya Nagar and Indira Nagar areas,” said a cop, adding that the police had seized 57 litres of Gokul milk and 66 litres of Amul milk from Jala’s residence.

The accused have been charged under Sections 272 (adulteration of food or drink intended for sale), 273 (sale of noxious food or drink), 328 (causing hurt by means of poison, etc), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.