India, Oct. 31 -- The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday suspended four senior officers and initiated departmental inquiries against 28 others for conducting raids on two hookah tobacco manufacturers without first establishing whether the products fell under the department's jurisdiction.

The action comes a day after HT reported that senior bureaucrats had advised FDA commissioner Tukaram Mundhe to tread cautiously and ensure that the department's aggressive enforcement drive did not breach the law, particularly after courts criticised procedural lapses in some of its raids. The raids that prompted Friday's suspensions were conducted months before Mundhe took charge in May this year.

The FDA had seized prohibited f...