The city police have arrested four people, including a wholesale dealer of KMF products, for allegedly selling adulterated ghee for the last two months in Adugodi and Kumara Park.
According to the police, Ayyappa Swamy, who has been identified as the prime accused, allegedly plotted this scam in order to make up for the money he lost in a betting during an IPL cricket match.
The police took up the investigation last month based on a complaint from KMF officials who found adulterated ghee being supplied from the milk parlour at Bengaluru Diary in Adugodi. Following complaints from consumers, a team of KMF quality control officials had identified 84 packets of adulterated ghee after tests in the lab.
Apart from Swamy, 30, from Tamil Nadu, who lived in J.J. Nagar in the city, the others arrested are Maruthi, 28, a resident of Malleswaram, Shivakumar, 29, who lives in Kumara Park West, and Sukumar, 67, a resident of Dharmapuri.
They adulterated the ghee by adding palm oil and vegetable oil.
Swamy reached out to Maruthi, an employee for a company that has a dealership for KMF products. The duo later took the help of the other two accused — Shivakumar and Sukumar — both of whom ran Nandini milk outlets to sell the adulterated product. Maruthi’s role was to provide plastic covers to pack the ghee.
Cases have been registered under IPC sections 272 (Adulteration of food or drink intended for sale), 273 (Sale of noxious food or drink), and 420 (cheating).
