Six charge sheeted in dropsy case

The chargesheet has named Kamal Agarwal owner of Kamal Oil Mills, Dinesh Agarwal MD, Kamal Oil Mills, Vijay Kumar Agarwal owner of Vijay Trading Company, Pawan Kumar proprietor of Vikas Trading/Vikas Oil Mill and his brother Sushil Kumar. The CBI has also charged the managing partner of Krishna Oil Mill and Cotton Company, Mahesh Kumar Maganlal Shah, with being a party to the criminal conspiracy.

The chargesheet, however, has not named any government official. Taking cognisance of the chargesheet, the CMM today issued production warrants for Kamal Agarwal, Pawan Agarwal, Sushil Kumar Agarwal, who are all in judicial custody, and Mahesh Kumar Maganlal Shah, who is in Himmat Nagar jail in Gujarat.

The court also issued non-bailable warrants against Dinesh Agarwal and Vijay Agarwal for November 30. The two are absconding.

Elaborating on the criminal conspiracy, the chargesheet states that the Gujarat-based company Krishna Oil Mill and Cotton Company owned by Mahesh Kumar Magan Lal Shah had purchased argemone seeds for 8220;Rs 7 a kg8221;. He 8220;manufactured aregmone oil in his factory8221; and supplied it to a Delhi-based company Vijay Trading Corporation in May and June this year.

The Vijay Trading Corporation in turn sent the argemone oil to its sister concern Delhi-based Kamal Oil Mills. Both companies are owned by brothers, namely, Vijay Kumar Aggarwal and Kamal Aggarwal, respectively. Both the brothers issued four demand drafts to the tune of Rs 15.67 lakh to the Gujarat company. Kamal Oil Mill then sold off the adulterated mustard oil through a broker Babu Ram Gupta to Vikas Traders owned by Sushil Kumar and Pawan Kumar.

Vikas Traders then pumped the adulterated mustard oil into the market, under different labels, like Vandev, Tiranga and Laxmi. The first supply reportedly went to S.K. Kiryana in Uttam Nagar. Several of Kiryana8217;s customers complained of sickness, the CBI chargesheet says.

One retailer from Najafgarh bought adulterated oil from Kiryana8217;s Uttam Nagar shop and sold it to his regular customer K.K. Jha, whose daughter and wife then died allegedly after consuming food prepared from mustard oil. The CBI tested oil samples from Jha8217;s residence and found it contaminated.

Kamal Oil Mill also supplied one tanker of adulterated mustard oil to Rampat Oil Mill, in Jharoda Village, Najafgarh from July 20 to July 22. But they returned bulk of the adulterated oil to Kamal Oil Mill after receiving complaints from consumers.

Kamal Oil Mill, the CBI chargesheet says, however, did not relent but tried to palm it off to other oil-sellers, including a Guwahati-based company S.M. Enterprises. In Guwahati, the oil was tested by the company and found tainted.

After this several companies returned the adulterated oil to Kamal Oil Mill. Instead of stopping, they chose to sell a consignment to National Dairy Development Board NDDB in Noida.

On July 31, Naresh Trading returned a tanker-load licence number: DIL 3044 of adulterated oil to Kamal Oil Mill who sent the same tanker to NDDB authorities in Noida.