10 years after he served unsafe tomato sauce with bread pakoras and samosas, Chandigarh rail vendor fined Rs 30,000

The Court, however, acquitted Ravinder Singh, a nominee of Classic Caterers, the vending contractor of Northern Railway, Chandigarh.

Based on a complaint of Chandigarh Food Safety Officer (FSO) DP Singh, a case was registered in August 2014.

Singh stated that during an inspection of the Chandigarh Railway Station, he found Classic Caterers vendor Sushil Kumar on Platform Number 2 conducting his business at trolley number 2. The FSO said Kumar had tomato sauce in a 5-litre plastic container without any label declaration.

When asked, the FSO said, Kumar told him that the sauce was being served to passengers with bread parokas and samosas, but did not divulge the source from which he had purchased the sauce. Kumar only disclosed that he had purchased sauce at Rs 25 per litre from the open market, but no bill was produced, the FSO said. The FSO team then purchased two litres of tomato sauce for Rs 50 from Kumar, Singh said, adding: “Tomato sauce was divided into four equal parts and 40 drops of formalin was added to each part containing about 500gm. Thereafter, one part of the tomato sauce sample was sent to the Punjab Food Analyst in Chandigarh on August 7, 2014, and the sample was declared unsafe for human consumption vide a report dated August 19, 2024. On the application of the nominee of Classic Caterers, the sample was again checked and it was found that it does not qualify the regulations of the Act. A case under the Food Safety and Standards Act was, thus, registered.”

During the trial, Kumar’s counsel argued “there are major deficiencies in the proceedings as the proper procedure has not been followed by the prosecution while collecting the sample, and also no independent witness was joined by the prosecution, despite being their availability, which is a serious lacuna”. The defence counsel argued that “the alleged sample was taken in August when it was very hot and humid outside, and any food item can get uneatable in such a weather”.

The CJM on the argument of the accused’s counsel, observed, “Even if the weather was not good outside for the food, the accused was supposed to keep the food in a safe and healthy condition before selling it. When the accused was selling a food item to the general public, he had a duty to check whether the food was as per prescribed standards or not.” The CJM held that “the complainant has arrayed Ravinder Singh, a nominee of Classic Caterers and Classic Caterers as the accused on behalf of Classic Caterers, but how they are liable for the adulterated sauce, which was purchased by Sushil from someone and sold by Sushil is not explained. Thus, the court acquit them of the charges.”