Three persons convicted for selling adulterated oil

KANPUR: The metropolitan magistrate first of Kanpur Nagar, Anutosh Kumar Sharma on Tuesday punished a vegetable oil company named as Kurela Paper Mills under Prevention of Adulteration Act with a fine of Rs 2 lakh.
Deciding a case styled as Nagar Swasthya Adhikari vs K K Gupta and others the presiding judge convicted, K K Gupta, Rakesh Kumar and Ambareesh Mishra and sentenced them to one year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000.The judge also observed in his order that the accused had to undergo an additional month's imprisonment if they failed to pay fine. A fine of Rs 20,000 was also imposed on KK Oil store.
According to case file, food inspector, B L Gupta had purchased three pouches of Natkhat vanaspati ghee from KK Oil Store situated at Deputy Ka Padav on December 20, 2002. The product was manufactured by Kurela Paper Mills, Rania Kanpur. One of the packet was sent to public analyst as sample for testing and public analyst reported that the stuff was adulterated.
The nagar swasthya adhikari prosecuted K K Gupta as owner of KK Oil Store, Rakesh Kumar, partner, Sohanlal Prahlad Rai -- wholesaler of vanaspati and Kurela Paper Mills manufacturing company. The defendants appeared and urged to send the second sample to another lab for testing. The prosecution sent the second pouch to Banglore lab. The second sample also was found to be adulterated. After the report, defendants urged that they had been falsely implicated. The case had been filed when the expiry date of product had passed. They further claimed that their product was of high quality and a popular brand. If any packet did not contain the batch number and expiry date then it was treated as duplicate and was not their product. The sample packet sent to Banglore lab was duplicate hence, they were not guilty.
Rakesh Kumar was partner of the firm, Sohan Lal Prahlad Rai, and he claimed that he used to receive packed products from the company and used to sell them to retail outlets. K K Gupta said he had obtained the vanaspati oil packets from Sohan Lal Prahlad Rai firm. He had neither filled nor packed the stuff. Ambareesh Mishra said that he was a nominee of Kurela Paper Mills, but he had no role in manufacturing of product.
The presiding judge after going through the evidence and arguments observed that accused were guilty of adulteration hence they were liable to be punished according to law. He asked the manufacturing company to pay the fine within 15 days.