Pisoragal:
A court here sentenced three people to six months' imprisonment for violating food safety norms by turning Patanjali Elaichi into 'soan papadi'.
Assistant Public Prosecutor Ritesh Verma said Pithoragarh Chief Judicial Magistrate Sanjay Singh on Saturday imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000 on them, apart from the jail term.
Verma said the court sentenced Leeladhar Pathak, a shopkeeper from Verinag in Pithoragarh, to six months' imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 for selling the products.
The court imposed six months' imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 on Ajay Joshi, an assistant manager at Kanhaji Distributors Ltd, an authorized representative of Patanjali, in Nainital's Ramnagar.
Abhishek Kumar, the company's assistant general manager, was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of Rs 25,000.
He said the three were convicted under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006.
Mr. Verma collected samples of Mr. Patanjali's 'Elaichi Navratna Sone Papdi' from Mr. Pathak's shop on September 17, 2019, and then sent them to the National Museum in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh for testing. He said it had been sent to a research institute.
A case in this regard was registered in 2021 following reports that the samples were found not to meet food safety standards.
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