The police confiscated more than 500 kilos of food items including various cooking oils amounting to INR 4.82 lakh after they discovered that the food items were produced and kept at a godown in the Thane district of Maharashtra with an alleged forged licence.

An official from Shil-Daighar police station told PTI, "A leading manufacturer of asafoetida approached the police with a complaint that the accused were manufacturing the products with a fake licence. After that, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) officials raided the godown."

On Thursday, the authorities carried out an inspection at a godown in Daighar and filed charges against its four owners, reportedly.

Various products were seized by the FDA and police departments, including compounded asafoetida, edible gum, mustard oil, cotton seed refined oil and rice bran oil mixed with some brown liquid. ?For the manufacture of these products, they have used a false licence issued by India's FSSAI.

The total value of the confiscated goods is Rs?4,82,500.

A case was registered against the four owners of the godown under various sections of the Food Safety and Standards Act and also under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 420 (cheating), 34 (common intention), the police said.?

According to PTI, the four accused are identified as Mahesh Sheth, Abhishek Tripathi, Anil Yadav and Mohaziddin Mohammad Iqbal Memon.