A court in Uttarakhand has sentenced three people to six months in jail for violating food safety norms in the manufacture of Patanjali’s elaichi (cardamom) ‘Sone Popdi’.
Pithoragarh Chief Judicial Magistrate Sanjay Singh on Saturday imposed a fine of Rs 5,000-25,000 along with imprisonment, said officer Ritesh Verma.
Verma said that the court sentenced Leeladhar Pathak, a shopkeeper of Pithoragarh’s Bearnag town, to six months in jail and a fine of five thousand rupees for selling the product.
Ajay Joshi, assistant manager of Kanhaji Distributors Pvt Ltd, an authorized representative of Patanjali in Ramanagara, Nainital, was sentenced to six months imprisonment and a fine of ten thousand rupees by the court. Abhishek Kumar, the company’s assistant general manager, was fined Rs 25,000 and sentenced to six months in jail.
Ritesh Verma said the three had been convicted under the Food Safety and Quality Act, of 2006.
On September 17, 2019, Patanjali Elaichi Navaratna Son Papdi samples were collected from Pathak’s shop and sent to the National Laboratory in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh for testing. It was found that the samples did not meet food safety standards. This case was registered in 2021.
