Lucknow: Cracking down on illegal issuance of halal certificates, the special task force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh police arrested four members of the Halal Council of India, Mumbai, on Monday night.
According to STF, Halal Council of India did not have accreditation from any govt body and is not authorised to issue halal certificates.
The arrested persons were identified as Habib Yusuf Patel (president of the council), Muidshir Sapadia (vice-president), Mohammed Tahir Zakir Hussain Chauhan (general secretary) and Mohammad Anwar (treasurer).
Deputy superintendent of police, STF, Deepak Kumar Singh, who led the investigation, said: “It was found that the Halal Council of India issued certificates for various products without any proper verification or lab testing. The arrested individuals confessed that they did not conduct any lab testing before issuing certificates. Financial records regarding income and expenditure of the council are also suspicious,” the officer said.
“On Monday, we summoned the council’s president, vice-president, general secretary and treasurer from Mumbai to the STF office in Lucknow to record their statement. We found that the accused had issued fake certificates to many companies,” Singh said, adding that they issued certificates for food items other than meat and meat products.
“The accused charged around Rs 10,000 for a certificate and Rs 1,000 per product. The Halal Council of India is not authorized by NABCB or any other govt body to issue certificates,” the officer said.
In Nov 2023, Shailendra Kumar Sharma had filed a case at Hazratganj police station against eight agencies for issuing fake halal certificates. The companies named in the FIR were Halal India Pvt Ltd (Chennai), Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Halal Trust (Delhi), Halal Council of India, (Mumbai), Jamiat Ulama (Maharashtra), among others.
