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Journalism of Courage
PUNE, May 14: A 38-year-old wholesale trader operating from Chhatrapati Shivaji Market Yard at Gultekdi has been arrested on cheating charges along with his four employees after they were caught adulterating Basmati rice.
The godown of the Rameshwardas Gopiram Agarwal company at shop number 340 was raided late last night after Pappu Kumar Singh, quality controller of a Hariyana based company processing Basmati rice and selling it under the brand names Picric and Hellow, lodged a first information report against them.
The godown was sealed after the owner of Rameshwardas Gopiram Agarwal company, Shyam Rameshwar Agarwal, from Raviwar Peth and his four servants were arrested.
Among the arrested servants were Praksh Shankar Godmbe (25) of Shahu Vasahat area of Laxminagar, Rajendra Prasd Tambekr (30) of Sukhsagarnagar near Katraj, Bashir Abdul Razzak Sayyed (28) and Shabbir Kutubuddin Sayyed (21) (both of Padmavati).
According to inspector Irani, Agarwal had purchased premium quality processed Basmati rice, Tibar and Dubar of Picric, Ketve and Kohinoor brands. He and his servants were allegedly mixing inferior quality “Sharbati” rice as well as duplicate Basmati rice in it.
Agarwal is suspected to be selling adulterated Basmati rice for the several months. He used to sell mixture of premium quality Basmati rice and inferior quality rice as pure Basmati rice, police said. Agarwal and his employees were mixing the superior and inferior quality rice in equal quantities when his godown was raided, according to the police officials.
The officials from the Hariyana based rice processing company had kept a watch on Agarwal’s activities for almost a year after receiving a tip off that their rice was being adulterated in Pune. This is second incident in which adulteration of rice has come to light in Gultekdi Market Yard area. About a year back, a godown located in the Market Yard was raided and a racket allegedly indulged in adulterating rice which was to be sold at fair prices to the Adivasis in Thane district was busted, police said.
