BHOPAL: In a major action on Monday morning, five separate teams from the Economic Offences Wing
(EOW) Bhopal raided and searched five locations linked to Jayshree Gayatri Food Products Private Limited. The company was exporting milk products to around 20 countries.
The searches, conducted under a court-issued warrant, targeted the company’s factory in Sehore, the residence of the owner Kishan Modi in Shahpura Bhopal, a three-storey building in Bagheera Apartment area in Bhopal and the residence of the operating officer in Kissan Colony Sehore.About 30 EOW members, supported by an equal number of police personnel, carried out the raids.
The action came following a written complaint from a social worker named Bhagwan Singh Rajput who alleged that Jayshree Gayatri Food Products was manufacturing and selling substandard milk products, including cheese, butter, and ghee, on a large scale.
The complaint further claimed that the company’s directors were using
fake lab reports to export these products abroad and that banned chemicals and oils were being used in their manufacture.
During the investigation, EOW found that the company was indeed using forged reports from government-recognized laboratories across the country. These labs confirmed that the reports were fake.
The company had allegedly presented these fake reports to the Export Control Agency’s regional office in Indore, which then issued health certificates illegally. These certificates facilitated the export of many tonnes of substandard ghee and frozen cheese to Middle Eastern countries.
Following these findings, EOW registered an FIR for cheating, forgery, and conspiracy to use forged documents as originals.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Pankaj Gautam, the investigating officer, presented the case’s facts through Public Prosecutor Rekha Yadav to the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Sehore, Archana Naidu Bode. Based on this, the court issued a search warrant under the new Indian Civil Security Code.
During the searches, EOW recovered numerous pieces of digital evidence, including computer hard disks, laptops, mobile phones, and pen drives. These devices are suspected to have been used to prepare fake lab reports. The analysis of these documents is expected to uncover evidence related to the company’s illegal transactions.
The EOW team continued seizing digital evidence late into the night. The entire search operation was conducted under the provisions of the new BNS and was fully videographed.
Notably, the factory in Sehore had been sealed a few days prior for violating environmental regulations. It had to be unsealed and searched in the presence of the Tehsildar nominated by the Collector Sehore. So far, EOW has received reports from three laboratories, with results from two additional labs still pending.
