The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force on Monday arrested four office bearers of the Halal Council of India (HCI), an organisation allegedly issuing fraudulent Halal certificates. Those arrested were Maulana Habib Yusuf Patel, the head of the organisation, Zakir Hussain Chauhan, Maulana Muidshir Sapadia and Mohammad Tahir, all hailing from Mumbai.
In November 2023, after enforcing a complete ban on the production, storage, distribution and sale of Halal-certified food products in the State, Uttar Pradesh transferred the investigation of a case registered at Hazratganj police station in Lucknow against four firms, including the Halal Council of India, for alleged irregularities in certification of products, to the Special Task Force.
It was Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) office-bearer Shailendra Kumar Sharma who had alleged that some companies certified certain products fraudulently to increase their sale among people from a certain community for monetary gains. An FIR was registered under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 384 (extortion), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 298 (intent to wound religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
