Spurious desi ghee recovered in Faridkot

KOTKAPURA (Faridkot): This would be a concern for the connoisseurs of desi ghee in this part of Punjab that some unscrupulous traders are doing roaring business in the manufacturing and supply of spurious desi ghee. But, what is further shocking for them is that the police and health authorities failed in checking the business, which is being done in almost all towns of the area.
If earlier the police was very prompt in registering criminal cases against the suppliers and manufacturers of the spurious desi ghee and its chemical examination was done at later stage.Of late, as the most of the samples of the confiscated stock of the ghee were getting positive results in the laboratory examination, so the police have now changed the functioning style.
On Saturday the Kotkapura police seized 26 tins (each tin containing 15 kg ghee) of alleged spurious desi ghee from a local merchant. However, no case has been registered against anybody so far. Kulchhinder Singh, SSP Faridkot said that the case would be registered after getting the ghee sample tested from laboratory.
Nacchatar Singh, station house officer (SHO) Kotkapura said that the police confiscated the stock on the suspicion basis after receiving secret information.
But members of Consumer Welfare Association, Kotkapura suspect the police action in the case. Sadhu Ram Deora, general secretary of the association said that there were three firms in the town, which were doing business of spurious desi ghee in the area for the last three-four years.
The area police had earlier booked the owners of these firms for selling and manufacturing the duplicate ghee but they kept their business continuous after altering the name and style of their firms.
And interestingly, never any firm was convicted for the selling spurious ghee as the laboratory results were always found positive.
On October 1 last the Sangrur police arrested three members of a Kotkapura firm and confiscated 400 kg spurious ghee. A case is still pending. Last year another firm of the town and a businessman of Bagha Purana town were arrested with heavy stock of spurious ghee.
In two cases the accused were given clean chit and one case is still pending with Sangrur police as the laboratory report is still awaited.
While SSP Faridkot said that the case was not recovered in the latest case as the laboratory reports could be other than what the police suspect. So the accused can sue us for defamation in such circumstances, said the SSP. But the member of Consumer Welfare Association alleged the case was not registered to husk it up.
The association members alleged that police wrote the health department to take sample of the ghee for getting chemically examined only after the matter was reported in a local newspaper. The district health authorities told that the samples could not be taken so far due to holidays
Though the SHO Kotkapura denied the association allegations but the association members alleged that the house of the accused merchant was raided twice earlier also and huge quantity of spurious ghee was confiscated but no action was taken for unknown reasons.