A day after ban, UP govt starts crackdown on halal-certified products

The raids being conducted at shopping malls, grocery shops and other retail outlets are being monitored from the Food Safety and Drug Administration’s state headquarters in Lucknow, the officials said.

State Food Safety and Drug Administration Additional Commissioner Divyanshu Patel said, “The order that halal-certified products should not be sold was circulated to all field units. We are compiling reports coming from all districts.”

Asked about the amount of products with halal certification found in the raids, Patel said, “It is very difficult for me to say this right now. We will only be able to give details once reports reach us from everywhere. The action will continue for the next few days.”

However, food safety officials in several districts said no “halal-certified products have been found” so far. An official said raids were conducted at 23 locations of Kanpur district, but no halal-certified product was seized.

A food safety official from Moradabad district said, “We have conducted raids at four locations. But we haven’t found anything with halal certification so far.”

Meanwhile, the state police’s Special Task Force (STF) on Tuesday started its probe into an FIR lodged in connection with the sale of halal-certified products in Lucknow on Saturday.

The case was initially lodged at Lucknow’s Hazratganj police station but was transferred to the STF.

In the case, a company and three organisations were booked for allegedly providing “illegal halal certificates” to products sold in the state. It had also named “other unidentified manufacturing companies and their owners, people part of an anti-national conspiracy, and people funding terror outfits”.

The FIR was lodged on the complaint of a BJP’s youth wing member, claiming that “some companies have started certifying products as halal to increase their sale among a community” and that the practice is like “toying with the public’s faith”. The complaint had also claimed that “financial gains from the activity are being used to fund terror outfits”.

The case was registered against Chennai-based Halal India Private Limited, New Delhi-based Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Halal Trust, and Mumbai-based Halal Council of India and Jamiat Ullema on sections pertaining to criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity, cheating, etc.

STF Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Anant Deo said, “It is too early to share anything on the probe. We will be investigating all aspects of the case.”

The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, named as an accused in the case, had called the allegations baseless, saying it would “take necessary legal measures to counter such misinformation”.

“At Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind Halal Trust, our certification process aligns with manufacturers’ requirements for both export and domestic distribution in India. The global demand for halal-certified products is robust, and it is imperative for Indian companies to obtain such certification, a fact endorsed by the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India (Ministry’s trade notification number 25/2022-23),” it had said.