Missing in Calcutta — 20 tons of infected mutton

Sources said the consignment of 597 cartons of “hard frozen, bone-mutton carcass” arrived from Australia at the Calcutta Port in the second week of July. As per regulations, samples were sent for mandatory testing to the Port Health Office.

The stock was allowed to be lifted by the clearing and handling agent of the importer, the Islamic Education and Welfare Trust, after it agreed that the stock would not be used till the test results were received.

The stock was then reportedly taken to a private cold storage in the Raja Bazar area. The Port Health Office sent the samples to the Central Food Laboratory, a central government organization. In the first week of August, the test results came in showing that “e-coli contamination” had set in the meat and it wasn’t fit for human consumption.

Officials at the Port Health Office informed Customs as well as the importer. Nothing moved until only recently when the Customs officials wrote to the importer asking about the “status” of the consignment.

According to the importer, the cargo was a “mystery consignment” of meat that arrived from Australia. “Only when the consignment was on its way, we were informed about it by an organization called International Humanitarian Relief Organization, that this meat stock was arriving for charity among the poor. In fact, it landed us into trouble since it needed manpower and money too, to distribute the stock among the poor,” said Amirul Islam, the trust secretary.

“My guess is that the consignee was sending it as part of Zakat meaning the `poor’s due’ – a charity that devout Muslims are supposed to do. But why are you interested in this? I will request you not to dig into this matter. There are more serious things happening around us.”