Trader let off in adulterated oil cases

After an eight-year-long trial, a Delhi court acquitted an oil manufacturer charged in two separate cases for allegedly selling adulterated mustard oil that led to an outbreak of dropsy, though forensic lab reports say otherwise.

"The prosecution did neither examine the main witnesses nor prove that the contaminated oil was manufactured by him (accused)," Judge Narinder Kumar of the Fast Track Court said in two separate orders recently.

The court, however, gave credence to forensic lab reports which showed that samples of oil taken contained deadly argemone, which causes dropsy.

Interestingly, the court said the forensic report cannot be taken "advantage of" as there is no proof that samples were taken from the oil manufactured by the accused.

"There is no evidence on record that such mustard oil had been purchased by the public from the accused, so prosecution cannot take advantage of the forensic report to connect accused with the crime," the court said.

The two cases were registered separately in August 1998 against Kamal Aggarwal of Saraswati Vihar after a probe allegedly revealed that a large number of people were affected by dropsy after consuming mustard oil manufactured by his unit.

Two of his retail agents, Pawan Kumar and Sushil Kumar, were named co-accused in one of the cases and charged with the sale of noxious food under the IPC.

Aggarwal, in turn, was charged with culpable homicide (murder without intention), sale of noxious food and other provisions of the IPC.