Nutrition centre with forged FSSAI licence sealed, 2 held

Trichy: Two people, who faked the licence issued by the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), were arrested by the city crime branch (CCB) police in Trichy on Monday, more than six months after they absconded. Meanwhile, the nutrition centre run by one of the accused, for which the fake licence was procured, was sealed on Tuesday evening by a team led by designated officer (DO) of food safety and drug administration department, Trichy Dr R Ramesh Babu.

The accused were identified as R Bhuvaneswaran alias Bhuvaneswar, 41, of Mela Sridevi Mangalam and his friend B Balasubramanian, 50 of Nehruji Nagar in Ariyamangalam. The accused had created a bogus FSSAI licence for a nutrition centre run by Bhuvaneswaran in Puthur. They were arrested on charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery for purpose of cheating, forging the document and criminal conspiracy under IPC. A search is on for another accused hailing from Bengaluru.

“The accused were absconding ever since the case was booked. They were finally arrested yesterday (Monday). The search is on for one more accused in the case,” CCB inspector Kosalairaman told TOI on Tuesday.

The case was filed by the CCB based on a complaint by the DO Babu on March 31. Babu said that Bhuvaneswaran brought an FSSAI licence, which required his signature. When Babu verified the licence, he found that the FSSAI license number started with the state code no. 128 instead of Tamil Nadu’s state code 124. “I had a doubt on the genuineness of the number. After sending him back, I verified and found it to be a fake one,” he said.

The FSSAI licence number mentioned in the copy was that of a food business operation in Hooghly, West Bengal.

Further investigation by the police revealed that Bhuvaneswaran had to get his FSSAI license renewed. Since the usual process would take more than a month’s time, he sought Baskar’s help, who connected him with the Bengaluru-based man to create the fake licence.

Babu said that the application for new and renewal of licence and registration can be processed 60 days after due verification. “Instead of following the system, he violated it,” he said.