3 arrested for selling 20kg weed on Amazon India: Newspaper report

E-commerce website's comment awaited as traders association seeks action against it.

Madhya Pradesh’s police have arrested three persons for allegedly selling on Amazon India 20 kg of weed worth Rs 1.1 crore, Nai Duniya newspaper reported on Sunday.

Business Standard’s questions to Amazon India about the arrests were not immediately responded to, as a traders' association asked for government action against the e-commerce website.

Two people have been arrested from Bhind and one from Haridwar.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) should take action against Amazon, saying the website had acted as seller, collected money, posted on their website, and earned commission. 

“We are at a loss to understand why a technology giant does not use its artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning(ML) to identify sale of illegal items while they continue to use these technologies to identify and copy the products of poor MSMEs and Indian Manufactures for creating their own private label products,” said CAIT in a statement.

“The issue was notified to us and we are currently investigating it. We assure full co-operation and support required to Investigating Authorities and Law Enforcement agencies with ongoing investigations to resolve the issue at the earliest," said an Amazon India spokesperson.