NEW DELHI: A major counterfeiting and public health racket involved in repackaging expired branded food products by altering their manufacturing and expiry dates has been dismantled in Delhi’s Okhla Industrial Area. During a multi-agency joint enforcement action, police arrested seven suspects, including the firm’s octogenarian owner, and seized tampered consumer goods valued at over ₹20 lakh.

The targeted raid was executed at the warehouse premises of M/s Westend Corporation Pvt. Ltd. in Okhla Phase-II by a combined team of the Delhi Police, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Badarpur, and the anti-trafficking NGO Mission Mukti. Ironically, the inspection was initially triggered by actionable intelligence regarding illegal child labor at the manufacturing facility. While no child laborers were detected on-site, the structural profiling uncovered a massive assembly setup dedicated to relabeling expired and near-expiry food stocks for public consumption, according to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP).

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Chemical Solvents Used to Forge Registration Logs: Modus operandi details shared by investigators reveal that the syndicate purchased near-expiry or completely expired lots of high-demand FMCG brands at rock-bottom liquidation prices. The workers subsequently utilized chemical thinners and industrial solvents to completely erase the original factory-stamped manufacturing timelines and expiration limits. Using specialized high-resolution printing machinery, the operators applied forged production dates, updated batch numbers, fresh barcodes, and inflated Maximum Retail Prices (MRPs) before transferring the goods into counterfeit outer packaging.

The extensive inventory seized from the illegal repackaging plant included carbonated soft drinks, nutritional health supplements, instant noodles, dairy ghee, and packaged fruit juices. Police verified that these adulterated batches were routed to unsuspecting consumers through regional wholesale hubs and prominent e-commerce logistical platforms, with some consignments cataloged for international export.

The seven arrested individuals include the company’s owner, Darshan Singh Sachdeva (70), general manager Nitesh Bhardwaj, accountant Narender Kumar, technical operator Kapil, warehouse keeper Lucky Ojha, and supervisors Prem Yadav and Pawan Kumar Yadav. They face stringent criminal charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for systemic cheating and the sale of hazardous products. Concurrently, FSSAI’s Northern Regional Office confirmed that over 50,000 food and non-food items were documented on the premises with deceptive markers, prompting separate statutory litigation under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

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