Mumbai Police's Crime Branch Unit-11 has busted an adulterated milk racket in the Goregaon area, arresting two men accused of mixing dirty water into sealed milk pouches and selling the mixture as genuine, branded milk. The accused were found with 558 litres of adulterated milk, 224 fake empty milk pouches, adulteration equipment and a mobile phone, together worth Rs 50,304.
How police got the tip-off
According to DCP Navnath Dhawale, police received a confidential tip that two men operating near Ankur Building in Goregaon, in the Siddhivinayak Seva Mandal Society, Prem Nagar, Teen Dongri and Link Road areas, were mixing unclean water into packets of well-known milk brands and supplying the adulterated milk to residents. Acting on this information, a team from Crime Branch Unit-11, Kandivali, coordinated a joint raid with food safety officers from the Brihanmumbai Food and Drug Administration.
How the adulteration was carried out
The raid, conducted on the morning of 15 July 2026, found that the accused would cut open genuine packets of Amul Gold, Amul Taza and Gokul brand milk and draw out a portion of the milk inside. They would then top up the packets with an equal quantity of unclean water and reseal them so the pouches looked untouched and could pass off as certified, genuine milk. The doctored packets were being readied for sale to unsuspecting customers when police and food safety officials raided the spot and caught the operation in the act.
What was seized
Police recovered 558 litres of adulterated milk bearing the Amul and Gokul brands, valued at around Rs 39,504, along with 224 empty fake pouches of Amul Taza and Amul Gold. Officers also seized the material used for adulteration and a mobile phone worth Rs 10,000. The entire batch of adulterated milk that was recovered has since been destroyed so it could not reach the market by any other route. A case has been registered at Goregaon police station under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. Both accused have been arrested, and police are now investigating where else the adulterated milk may have already been supplied.
Not an isolated case in the state
This is not the first such case to surface in Maharashtra. Fake milk worth more than Rs 9 crore was seized earlier in the state's Dharashiv district as well. The recurring nature of these busts suggests that milk adulteration rackets are operating in multiple pockets of the state, keeping police and food safety authorities on continuous alert.
