The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday handed over the probe into alleged irregularities in halal certification of products to the state police’s special task force (STF), two days after ordering a complete ban on production, storage, distribution and sale of halal-certified products across the state.
Export products, however, have been kept out of the purview of the ban, which came a day after the police in Lucknow on November 17 registered a case against four organisations over alleged extortion in the name of providing halal certificates to retail products.
The case has been transferred to the UP Police STF, special director general of police (law and order) Prashant Kumar said in a notification on Monday.
A halal certification indicates that the product is prepared in accordance with Islamic law and is unadulterated. In India, a halal certificate is issued by a third-party body unlike in West Asian countries, where a magistrate grants the certificate.
On Saturday, the UP government said Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is the sole authority to issue certificates for edible products.
On November 17, Lucknow police booked four organisations, including Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Halal Trust, New Delhi, as well as some unidentified people for fraud, extortion, promoting enmity between groups on the basis of religion, and funding different “anti-national, separatist and terror organisations”.
{{/usCountry}}On November 17, Lucknow police booked four organisations, including Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Halal Trust, New Delhi, as well as some unidentified people for fraud, extortion, promoting enmity between groups on the basis of religion, and funding different “anti-national, separatist and terror organisations”.
{{/usCountry}}“Certain individuals propagating false claims against halal certification directly undermine our national interest,” Jamiat Trust’s CEO Niaz A Farooqui told HT over phone from Indonesia, adding the Trust would take necessary legal measures.