Salt trader awarded 6-yr prison

The sessions court of KJ Chaudhary has upheld the metropolitan court’s decision to send Tarachand Bhagwati Jain, a trader convicted of selling adulterated iodised salt, to six months jail.
He has also been slapped a fine of Rs10,000.

According to case details, a health inspector from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had raided the Arihant Provision Store on August 7, 1998, after he received a complaint of sale and distribution of iodised salt of inferior quality.

On raiding the store, the health inspector found the information to be true. 

Manoj Khandhar, AMC advocate, said, “It was found that the iodine content in the salt was 4.53% less than the prescribed standard.

“ Ideally, common salt should contain 15% iodine, however, the salt found at Arihant Provision Store had only 10.47%. The AMC authorities registered a case against the owner, Tarachand Bhagwati Iain. The metropolitan court had held the accused guilty and awarded him six moths of imprisonment and a fine of Rs10,000.

Later, however, Bhagwati made an appeal before the sessions court against the metropolitan court’s decision. But after verifying the evidence, the sessions court dismissed the appeal.