Days after the Bengaluru police busted a fake Nandini Ghee racket in the city, they arrested a couple suspected to be the kingpin of the alleged scam Wednesday.
According to the Central Crime Branch (CCB), which is probing the sale of adulterated ghee under the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) Nandini brand, the couple has been identified as Shivakumar and Ramya, residents of Mysuru.
They said the couple was on the run after CCB busted the racket and seized 8,136 litres of adulterated ghee, large quantities of coconut and palm oil, Rs 1.19 lakh in cash, four goods vehicles used for transport, and machinery used to produce and pack the fake ghee, all worth about Rs 1.27 crore.
The police said they have taken the couple into 10-day custody. Following the arrests of Ramya and Shivakumar, the police also froze Rs 60 lakh in their bank accounts.
The CCB probe has revealed that the fake Nandini Ghee was being supplied in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as the product of state-owned KMF.
A police officer said the couple had insiders from KMF who helped them in their operation. They used industrial-grade machines to mass-produce ghee and repackaged it to appear like Nandini Ghee.
Before nabbing the masterminds, CCB arrested four people — KMF authorised distributor Mahendra, his son Deepak, and associates, including Muniraju — in connection with the alleged racket’s distribution network.
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The incident came to light after a KMF vigilance team found fluctuations in the supply, and officials informed the Bengaluru city police of their findings. The police then conducted raids on several shops, godowns, and other locations, leading to the arrest of Mahendra.
According to CCB, the genuine ghee was transported to Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu, where it was diluted with palm oil, coconut oil, and hydrogenated vegetable oil. Every litre of genuine Nandini Ghee was used to produce four litres of fake ghee. The “ghee” was then smuggled and distributed to Nandini outlets and grocery shops in Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu.
A police officer in Mysuru said that the accused have similar cases against them, and that they had been adulterating ghee for years.