Chandigarh, Aug 19: The police crackdown on Singla Milk Chilling Centre in Patiala's Mehon village has found that the factory produced and distributed spurious milk and dairy products with connivance of district food safety officials.

Patiala superintendent of police (SP) Kesar Singh, who has been leading the probe, said the factory owner, Anil Kumar Singla, has revealed that a fixed monthly amount of Rs 5,000 was sent to the district food safety department, along with Rs 10,000 for each sample clearance.

Apart from the district health department, officials of the state food laboratory in Kharar are also part of the nexus, the police official said.

So far, the police have made two arrests in the case. While the owner, Singla, was held earlier in the week, his accomplice Jai Bhagwan of Cheeka in Haryana was apprehended on Friday.

In the police raid on Singla Milk Chilling Centre, a total of 7,000 litre spurious milk, 250 litres of chemical used in making adulterated milk, 20 quintal cheese, 323 bags (50 kg each) of skimmed powdered milk, and 12 quintal ghee were seized.

The investigators have also written to the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), after finding that the chemical used for adulterated milk production was released in a borewell dug inside the factory. This could had contaminated the local groundwater.

Meanwhile, the chief of district food safety department, Dr Krishan Singh, has dismissed the charges levelled by the police. He claimed that during his four-month stint as the head of the department, no spurious samples were cleared.

The police, however, claimed that they are collecting sufficient amount of evidence to take action against the corrupt officials in the food safety department.

The investigators have also released the list of 15 retail sellers who procured milk and dairy products from Singla factory. 6 of these dairies are based in Patiala, they are: Shiva Lassi and Dairy, Pammi Poorian Wala, Chawla Dairy, KD Milk Store, Sharma Dairy and Raju Dairy. Meanwhile, other eight dairies which were supplied with the adulterated products are based in Haryana's Kurukshetra.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 19, 2018 01:49 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).