New Delhi: An over 10-year-old company, which has previously supplied milk-based products to popular pizza brand Domino’s and a major Indian FMCG company, as well as exports to some key global markets, has come under the scanner of enforcement agencies for alleged “mass adulteration” and forgery of government-issued quality certificates.
Madhya Pradesh Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are investigating Jayshri Gayatri Food Products (JGFPL)—which supplies milk-based products to major chains and exports to countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore and New Zealand—in connection with forging certificates, including those issued to FMCG major ITC, which also runs ITC hotels.
On Wednesday, the ED conducted searches at nine locations, including a factory in Sehore, two offices in Bhopal and other residential properties linked to the company’s directors in Bhopal and Morena.
The investigation has so far uncovered the forgery of at least 63 certificates, either issued for some other firms or not issued at all by competent authorities such as the Export Inspection Agency (EIA).
According to the agency, these certificates were allegedly used for the export and domestic sale of adulterated milk products.
The MP EOW has alleged in an FIR it registered last year that several certificates submitted by the firm were either not issued at all or were issued in the name of other firms by laboratories based in Jaipur and Noida.
During the searches Wednesday, the agency also found fixed deposits (FDs) for around Rs 6.26 crore in the name of the company or its directors. The deposits have been frozen. The agency also seized Rs 25 lakh in cash and luxury vehicles, including a BMW.
Inspector in-charge of Chunabhatti Police Station Bhupendra Kaur Sindhu said that Payal Modi, the wife of the company’s managing director, Kishan Modi, and a director herself, tried to take her own life at her residence in Bhopal Thursday evening.
In a note, she pinned the blame on a man named Chandra Prakash Pandey and his younger brother, Ved Prakash Pandey—relatives of Union Minister Chirag Paswan—accusing them of using political influence to implicate her family and weaponising agencies like the ED, EOW and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) against her family and company.
In a four-page note, she alleged that Chandra Prakash Pandey had already threatened them with an ED raid.
Claiming they were being unfairly targeted, she also cited a previous case registered against Pandey and others for malpractice within the company, alleging that no action had been taken against them.
“We have received a complaint from Payal Modi after she recovered. In the primary report received, she was revealed to have consumed rat poison,” Said Sindhu to ThePrint.
“We are investigating the content of the allegations levelled by her which can’t be disclosed at this point of time since two agencies such as the EOW and ED are already investigating the matter related to her.”
ThePrint reached Chirag Paswan via WhatsApp and calls. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
The FSSAI in October 2023 suspended the company’s license on the grounds of substandard products, but it was later reinstated in December of that year, ThePrint has learnt.
These developments come nearly 6 months after the Madhya Pradesh EOW conducted a similar round of searches at these premises and seized “incriminating evidence”, including several certificates after filing the case.
The EOW booked director Kishan Modi, Rajendra Modi, and Payal Modi and the Chief Operating Officer Amit Dhanraj Kuklod on charges of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
“In the raids, there was recovery of several incriminating evidence such as certificates which were sent to forensic laboratories for analysis. We have been receiving reports over the past few weeks and have found around 58 certificates on the quality of their products which were forged,” an MP EOW official said to ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
Kishan Modi declined to comment on the allegations of forgery and adulteration.
ThePrint takes a deep dive into the case against Jayshri Gayatri Food Products and the roots of the controversies surrounding the firm, its directors and former employees.
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Known for its brand name “Milk Magic”, Jayshri Gayatri Food Products initially started as a business-to-business (B2B) firm in 2013, exporting milk-based products such as paneer, cheese, butter, curd and both flavoured and pure milk.
According to the company’s website and officials from the Madhya Pradesh EOW and the ED, the firm is an exporter of finished milk products to more than 28 countries like the US, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and New Zealand.
However, it also entered the retail business in India in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic with its “Milk Magic” brand in December 2020.
Among the big companies, the firm supplied its products to Jubilant FoodWorks, which owns and runs popular pizza brand Domino’s across the country, and Kolkata-based FMCG company Keventer Agro Limited.
ThePrint has accessed a note issued in 2022 by Jubilant FoodWorks to Jayshri Gayatri Food Products rejecting quintals of its frozen paneer on the ground of it being of substandard quality.
Similarly, Keventer Agro Limited had rejected 25 tonnes of skimmed milk powder due to “higher ash content”, according to a rejection certificate reviewed by ThePrint.
It is, however, unclear if the company continued to supply products to these companies.
ThePrint reached spokespersons of these companies. The report will be updated if and when a response is received.
The Madhya Pradesh EOW received a complaint from RTI activist Gupta that products were also supplied to Jubilant FoodWorks and investigators are set to approach the firm on the nature of the business relationship between them, ThePrint has learnt.
The EOW sought details of certificates produced before the Indore office of the Union government’s Export Inspection Agency (EIA). The EIA submitted a list of certificates produced by the firm on 27 June, 2024, and an analysis by investigators found evidence of large-scale forgery.
The investigation also revealed that two certificates from September and November 2021, which Jayshri Gayatri Food Products claimed were issued to it by laboratories based in Noida and Jaipur, were later found to be issued to FMCG major ITC Limited and Bharat Cereals.
These FMCG companies apply for quality certificates from labs accredited by the government.
“The complaint was extensive in nature and after verification of claims made such as in relation to forgery of certificates, which were found to be true after confirmation by labs whose names were used in the certificates produced by the firm before the Indore office of EIA, an FIR was registered on 22 July last year,” an MP EOW official told ThePrint.
The official said on verification, it was found that the directors of the company entered into a “criminal conspiracy” on a large scale based on forged laboratory reports.
“They have gained illegal profits by exporting milk products. The role of Mr. Amit Dhanraj Kuklod, an employee of this company, has been found in preparing fake laboratory reports and adulterating milk products by illegally selling chemicals and oil by creating a fake company in the name of his family members,” the FIR says.
A little over a week after the FIR was registered, the Madhya Pradesh EOW raided premises linked to the firm’s directors and found incriminating evidence such as the certificates.
Officials in the MP EOW also said the JGFPL leadership had been using deep discounting methods to evade monetary and regulatory scrutiny of exports to countries in West Asia.
“Consignments weighing tonnes have been returned from foreign countries in the past and at least on one occasion, the firm chose to offer the container at a 30-40 percent discount to evade extra scrutiny and matter going up to higher authorities,” another official said.
In August 2023, an FIR was filed by Jayshree Group against its former chief executive officer, Sunil Tripathi, and General Manager Vamik Siddiqui and two long-time clients—Hitesh Punjabi and Baljeet Sharma—accusing them of malpractice.
Punjabi was engaged in business with Jayshree Group through his Dubai-based firm, while Sharma was associated through his Kuwait-based firm.
The company filed a complaint with Bhopal City Police, accusing Tripathi of conspiring with Siddiqui, Punjabi and Sharma to dupe the firm of Rs 15 crore by creating fake invoices.
According to the complaint, the fraud was caught during an audit when company directors scanned its bills, documents and stocks over the three previous years.
Following the FIR, the Bhopal City Police arrested Tripathi and Siddiqui and filed a chargesheet in June last year. Siddiqui, Tripathi’s nephew Abhishek Tripathi, and Punjabi were also chargesheeted in their absence.
According to court documents reviewed by ThePrint, Tripathi allegedly revealed the plot of defrauding Jayshree Group of 800 tonnes of butter by creating fake invoices, including those in the name of a company named Sugam Food founded by Abhishek Tripathi and Siddiqui’s brother, Zakir.
“From the facts revealed in the memorandum of the accused (Tripathi), it is clear that Chandraprakash Pandey is directly involved in embezzlement and preparing fake bills of the embezzled money,” the 14th Additional Sessions Judge Sunil Dandotiya noted in his order in November 2024 while ordering an additional investigation into revelations made by Tripathi in his statement during the course of the investigation.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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