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The organization had neither done sampling nor tested the products, said police (Representational)

The Lucknow Police has arrested four officials of the Halal Council of India, Mumbai for issuing fake Halal certificates to companies without proper sampling or testing.

“The organization had neither done sampling nor tested the products. They have only issued certificates by taking a certain amount. We questioned the certificate issuing body, the Halal Council of India. They accepted the charges that they did no sampling, nor visited any factory nor checked any process,” Additional Director General of Police (ADG) of Lucknow Special Task Force (STF) Amitabh Yash said speaking to ANI on Tuesday.

The ADG said that the Halal Council of India also did not receive any authorization from any government agency to issue such certificates.

“The body that issues such certificates or allows agencies to issue certificates has not issued any certificate to the Halal Council of India,” the ADG said.

Amitabh Yash said that two companies were convinced that a certain section of the population will not consume their products if they do not get certification.

“Two companies were duped. They were convinced that if they were not certified a certain section of the population would not consume their products and they would lose market share and be out of business,” he said.

Speaking about the arrests, Amitabh Yash said, “The president, vice president, treasurer and secretary of the Halal Council of India have been arrested.”

“When they were asked about their incomes and expenditures, they could not share any descriptions. We do not have any clarity on where they had spent the extorted amount. We can reveal this only after we study the financial statements,” he added.

Speaking on action against such fake certification bodies, the ADG said, “We have got information on several other self-proclaimed certification bodies. We will gather evidence against all of them and conduct our investigation.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)