A deputy manager of a dairy major has been awarded six months in jail by a Delhi court for supplying adulterated low fat cream to a hotel in 2006. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Rao also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Mother Dairy’s deputy manager Dr Kallol Kumar Pramanik.
The court also convicted and imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on Gujarat Corporation Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, which had further supplied the adulterated product to other enterprises through which it reached the hotel. “…it shall meet the end of justice if convict Dr Kallol Kumar Pramanik is sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of six months as well as pay fine of Rs 10,000 and M/s Gujarat Cooperation Milk Marketing Federation Ltd is sentenced to pay fine of Rs 1 lakh for the offence punishable under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act,” the court said.
According to the Department of Prevention of Food Adulteration, Pramanik was also looking after day-to-day business of Mother Dairy, which had supplied the food item to Gujarat Cooperation Milk Marketing Federation. The federation had further supplied the food item to one Anand Enterprises which had sent that product to the hotel, it said.
According to the prosecution, a raid was conducted by the food inspector at the hotel on June 3, 2006 during which it was found that its manager was conducting the business of various food items including low fat cream. The inspector collected the sample of the food item. “Public analyst found that the sample was adulterated because the milk fat was found to be less than the minimum prescribed standard of 25 per cent,” the food inspector said.
A case was filed by the prosecution against both Pramanik and the federation and also against hotel Shangri-La’s manager Girish Sharma, hotel’s parent group Hotel Excelsior and Anjali Anand and Harsh Anand of Anand Enterprises for allegedly being involved in the business of producing and selling the said adulterated item.
The court, however, acquitted Girish, Hotel Excelsior, Anjali and Harsh in the case. The court while convicting the others said that the offence was “serious in nature” and “adulteration of food is a menace” to public health. “The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act has been enacted with an aim of eradicating that social evil and for ensuring purity in the article of food.”
The aim of the Act is to protect the citizens from those in the guise of respectable trades jeopardise the health and the well being of innocent customers. The adulterators are serious risk to the society,” the court said.
(Source: PTI)
