Navi Mumbai: Meat seized at cold storage in June found to be beef, case registered

The Taloja police booked the manager and owner of a cold storage company from Taloja MIDC after frozen beef worth Rs 1.5 crore was found in two refrigerated containers at the cold storage. The cold storage company had failed to provide documents in support of the commodity seized at the premises in June 2022, following which the police sent the samples to the Kalina lab for forensic tests and the report revealed that the frozen meats were beef.

A case has been registered at the Taloja police station under the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act, 1976, against the owner and manager of the company. The act prohibits the transport or export of cow, bull or bullock for slaughter and also prohibits the purchase, sale, disposal or possession of meat of cow, bull or bullock. There is also a provision of up to 5 years of jail under the Act.

While the police seized the frozen meats in June 2022, a case was registered on August 18 after a report from Kalina FSL's DNA lab came back on August 13. The police said that they carried out the raid on June 14, based on a tip-off, and found frozen meats stored in two refrigerated containers. “We had sent a total of 12 samples taken randomly from the seized meat and 11 of them were found to be beef,” said an official from Taloja police station.

The police seized a total of 79,196 kg of frozen meat worth Rs 1,58,39,200 stored in different packages. “Frozen halal meat and frozen boneless buffalo meat were written over the package,” said the official. The initial investigation found that the frozen meats were stored by a frozen food export company with offices in Govandi and Delhi.