Siliguri, Aug. 4: Police are investigating the sabotage angle in the Himul milk adulteration case with company officials stating today that they had enough “reasons to believe” that some packets had been tampered with by the company staff.

Officials of north Bengal’s premier milk cooperative had initiated an “internal inquiry” after they stumbled upon packets of adulterated milk in the middle of last month.

The police said they were exploring chances of sabotage. “Chances are that a section of the Himul staff could be on the payroll of rival companies or outside agents,” said a senior district police officer.

Himul chief executive officer Rajesh Pandey said: “We suspect an inside hand in the episode. As part of our own investigation, we have questioned the workers at the plant. We are thoroughly checking the details of every milk packet, including the batch numbers and the overall quality of packets. An internal vigil has also been set up,” Pandey added.

Sources said some 35 workers of Himul’s Matigara unit had been grilled by senior company officials over the past few days.

Following complaints from agents and consumers, the management of the milk cooperative had to withdraw some 100 packets from the market.

Laboratory tests confirmed that the packets contained adulterated milk. The milk was laced with caustic soda, used normally to clean pipes at the Himul’s processing plant.