Hyderabad, Aug. 4 -- The Hyderabad Police's H-FAST team has busted a large-scale spice adulteration racket, seizing 25 tonne of adulterated spices and another 89 tonne of raw material allegedly kept for further adulteration and processing, following raids at Balapur and Mailardevpally.

Three cases have been registered and the accused arrested. Police said the accused procured spices, processed them using a range of prohibited and industrial substances and sold the finished products in wholesale and retail markets.

Poisonous dyes found

The most alarming find during the raids was the use of industrial-grade dyes, substances clearly labelled "poisonous" and "non-edible" and ordinarily used to colour cloth, mixed directly into spices. Alon...