Delhi: A midnight mini-tempo, a foul stench, and 1,150 kilograms of ‘fake’ paneer seized by food safety inspectors in Greater Noida’s Jewar spiralled into a protest, with even BJP leaders wading in. By the end, two policemen were suspended. The paneer and its trader landed on the winning side.
Raids on spurious paneer aren’t uncommon. This time, though, it turned into a political brawl, dragging in even a former Union minister. And those trying to crack down have paid the price so far.
On Friday night, food inspectors acting on a tip-off intercepted a mini-tempo at Jewar toll plaza. Headed from Bulandshahr to Delhi, it was transporting a huge consignment of paneer. When the cargo was opened, a pungent stench filled the air. A food inspector and a Jewar sub-inspector climbed into the back, uncovered the stacks, and offloaded all of it on the spot.
Until that point, it was all par for the course. Paneer is one of the most adulterated foods in India and sniffing out ‘fake paneer’ even became a viral trend. Noida itself has seen several paneer raids. One of the latest was in July when 1,400 kg of fake paneer was seized and traced to a factory in Aligarh. Sold for Rs 180-200, that stock was being supplied across Delhi-NCR for almost six months, police said. There was much outrage over the counterfeit product and public appreciation that the ‘racket’ had been busted.
They just tasted the paneer superficially and decided that it is a synthetic paneer. The protestors had urged the police to send the paneer to the lab. But they didn’t
-Sanjeev Balyan, BJP leader
But that’s not how the Jewar raid played out. The confiscation set off a storm. The outrage was not against the trader, Lokender Chaudhary, but for him. The local pradhan and his workers arrived at the police station in protest, soon joined by BJP workers. The matter blew up to an extent that Sanjeev Balyan, former Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, reached the police station and joined the dharna. Accusations of bribery and manhandling followed, and by the end two policemen were suspended.
Meanwhile, videos went viral of mountains of paneer being buried underground — and it is this that has become a major bone of contention.
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Buried evidence?
There are two opposing versions of how the raid was conducted. Trader and paneer manufacturer Lokender Chaudhary insists he is the aggrieved party.
It was a phone call from his driver on 12 September that alerted Chaudhary to the interception of his tempo. The driver said the vehicle had been stopped by authorities at Jewar. Chaudhary then got on the phone with the food inspector, requesting that a sample be taken and the necessary checks be conducted.
“In return, the cops demanded a bribe of Rs 1 lakh,” alleged Chaudhary. “I asked, ‘Why should I pay you money when the paneer from my factory is genuine?”
Since the seized items were perishable, we collected samples and disposed of the rest by digging a pit using a JCB machine
-Sarvesh Kumar, assistant commissioner of food
He said he then reached the police station with a few workers and Prem Veer, a BJP worker and vice president of the Bulandshahr District Farmers’ Association. There, he discovered that the entire consignment — worth around Rs 6 lakh — had been dumped, alleging that no samples were collected. Chaudhary claimed that both he and Prem Veer were detained, kept in jail for protesting against the police, and even assaulted in custody.
“We are demanding compensation for the paneer which was dumped without prior examination. I have been supplying paneer for the last 25 years but no one has ever raised a question over its quality,” Chaudhary said.
A resident of Kalakhuri village in Bulandshahr, Chaudhary runs a paneer manufacturing unit that sources milk from local farmers. His paneer, he said, mostly goes to Delhi and a few stores in Noida.
Food safety officials, however, told a different story about the seizure.
“Our food inspectors received a tip-off and acted promptly. They are always on the ground to monitor the transportation of food items. We also seek assistance from the local police during such raids. In this particular case, officers from Jewar police station supported the operation,” said Sarvesh Kumar, assistant commissioner of food (Gautam Buddha Nagar). “Prima facie it appeared to be synthetic paneer.”
While he acknowledged that the paneer had indeed been dumped, samples were collected first and sent for laboratory testing.
“Since the seized items were perishable, we collected samples and disposed of the rest by digging a pit using a JCB machine,” he added.
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Cops in the dock
With the protest showing no signs of dying down and allegations of misconduct flying, the police suspended two sub-inspectors.
A senior Jewar official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the action was taken largely to pacify the angry crowd and under political pressure.
“The trader and his supporters were protesting. Despite our efforts to reason with them, they refused to relent. Eventually, they began accusing the sub-inspectors involved in the seizure of manhandling them, and insisted they would not leave until the SIs were suspended,” said a Jewar police official.
What compounded the issue was that former Union minister Sanjeev Balyan joined the clamour for suspensions. He said he rushed to the thana after learning that BJP worker Prem Veer had been arrested.
“It was my fellow BJP worker, I had to intervene and monitor the matter closely. He had blue marks all over his body because of the assault. It was the mishandling and improper investigation by the police that I was protesting,” Balyan told ThePrint.
The leader has sided with trader Lokender Chaudhary and accused police of dumping the paneer without taking samples.
“They just tasted the paneer superficially and decided that it is a synthetic paneer. The protestors had urged the police to send the paneer to the lab. But they didn’t,” Balyan added.
The alleged fake paneer, however, is not off the hook.
The senior Jewar officer said samples were collected and sent to the lab. He also noted that preliminary checks by food inspectors typically include tasting or smelling as a quick assessment.
“In this case, the paneer had a strong stench, which raised immediate concerns about its quality,” the officer said. “It’s a matter of a few days, everything will be out in public.”
(Edited by Asavari Singh)