Spurious drinks unit raided,2 held

Over 40 crates of cold drinks were confiscated in the raid conducted by Police Special Technical Operation Cell (STOC) and the Food Safety Cell of the UT Health Department,following a complaint by PepsiCo. According to police,the company had approached a detective agency in Sector 34,following suspicion that illegally prepared soft drinks were being sold under their brand name.

Police said the accused bought old company bottles form scrap dealers and filled them with locally prepared drink. The label would have the brand name spelt differently while the bottle caps and seals would carry the brand name of Coca-Cola. The recovered drinks were being sold under misleading names like Himalayan Dew,Foster premier fruit beer,Mango Mazza and Orange Cola. Around 12 crates of Foster premium fruit beer and 25 crates of Mango Mazza were confiscated,among other loose bottles.

“The drinks were being manufactured in highly unhygienic conditions and samples were collected and sent for testing,” said Inspector Ranjit Singh Dhillon,head of STOC.

The accused manufactured the drinks and sold them to a dealer in Grain Market Sector 26,who supplied them further to local vendors. According to the police,the drinks were picked readily by shopkeepers in suburban areas,highway dhabas and for social events like marriages where the spurious nature of the drinks would go undetected as they are usually served in glasses. The colour of the drinks was like the other popular brands but these were priced cheap.

A case has been registered in the Industrial Area Police Station.