Thane: Is that cumin or is it wood in your jeera rice?

The police have arrested Chetan Gandhi (left) and Shadab Khan, in connection with the racket

If, over the last one year, you found something wrong with the taste of your jeera rice at a highway dhaba, we may finally know why. The Thane police have arrested two accused who were allegedly selling adulterated cumin seeds, or jeera, by the ton to dhabas on the highways leading to Pune, Nashik, Ahmedabad and Goa, as well as retailers.

According to police officials, the racket was busted after the Shanti Nagar police in Bhiwandi received a tip off that a tempo carrying spurious jeera would be coming to the Nagaon Fatma Nagar area. Accordingly, a trap was laid, and the police intercepted the tempo, which was carrying nearly three tons of spurious cumin, worth Rs 7.19 lakh, on Thursday. The police also arrested Shadab Khan, 33, a resident of Palghar and Chetan Gandhi, 34, a Kandivli resident during the seizure.

"While interrogating the accused, we learned that Gandhi was making the product in a factory he had set up in Manor in the Palghar district. On Friday, we raided the factory jointly with the Food and Drug Administration, and seized good worth Rs 30 lakh, including machinery and equipment. The factory has been sealed," said Deputy Commissioner of police Navnath Dhavale, Zone II, Thane Police. Officers said that the factory was set up without any permissions from the local or state administration.

"The accused would source fennel seeds waste and wood from Gujarat, and mix them with chemical powder so that it would look like cumin. In order to add the authentic taste, the accused would then mix it with some quantity of genuine cumin. This mixture was sold at half the current market price, which led to a huge demand among their customers," said a police officer who is part of the investigation.

The officer added that these customers include dhabas along highways, where jeera rice is a very frequently ordered dish, and even some sellers in the APMC market in Navi Mumbai. "We added some of the fake cumin seized from the accused in water and the black colour came off, revealing its true nature. Samples have been sent for formal analysis to the Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Kalina," said Dhavale.

The police have found that the duo were running the racket for nearly a year. Officials suspect that the duo started it when cumin prices hit a dizzying Rs 600 per kg, thanks to the changing weather patterns in Rajasthan, which is India's largest grower, which impacted the harvest. Over the last one year, law enforcement agencies in different states have seized spurious cumin prepared from ingredients like coconut broom pieces and even powered stone in some instances.

Rs 7.19 L
Value of spurious cumin seized from the accused