Armymen get diluted milk

The CBI on Sunday unearthed a milk dilution cartel at the Military Dairy Farm (MDF) at Bowenpally here. The cartel diluted and adulterated milk supplied to jawans in the city, while diverting quality milk to retailers. The scam is worth about Rs 2 crore annually.

According to the CBI, Army units in the city require 5,000 litres of milk every day. Of this, the MDF produces 2,000 litres and the remaining 3,000 litres are bought from Vijaya Dairy at Lalaguda. Some officials diverted 2,000 litres of milk — 500 litres produced at the MDF and 1,500 litres supplied by the Vijaya Dairy. The shortfall was made up by diluting the milk and making some more from milk powder. The entire quantity was repackaged at the MDF.

A 40-member CBI team led by the superintendent of police, Mr A.Y. Krishna, raided the farm on Saturday night following a tip-off. The fraudsters used to work from 10 pm to 3 am every day, and made about Rs 50,000 a day, a CBI official said. They would sell genuine milk sachets to retailers.

On Saturday at 10 pm, the milk van carrying 3,000 litres of Vijaya Dairy milk in sachets reached the MDF. CBI officials verified the delivery challans which were in order. In the early hours, retailers came on scooters and autorickshaws to buy the milk. CBI officials who lay in wait seized the milk from them. They confessed that the unit was supplying milk for several months.

Later, the CBI detained three trucks of the MDF that came out around 2.30 am to deliver the milk to various units, and checked them. “We found only 1,400 litres of Vijaya Dairy milk. The remaining milk supplied by the dairy was sold,” CBI officials raided the MDF and found the milk powder and old sachets of Vijaya Dairy June 24 and June 25,” a CBI official said.

CBI officials questioned Mr Quasim, officer in-charge of the MDF, said the investigating official.