The Muscat Primary Court recently gave the verdict against the nine accused in a case of selling expired confectionery at a shop and two outlets of Dwarkadas Kalyanji and Co, a company based in the Omani Wilayat of Muttrah, one of the six provinces in the Muscat Governorate. The company is registered under commercial registration number 1020579.
They have been identified as Georgina Cindrella George; Jaisinh Dwarkadas; Ranjitsinh Dwarkadas; Ratansinh Dwarkadas; Samir Sunil Sen; Nirmal Kumar Baliwal; Pigo Balet Milan; Shandan Kumar Teluk, and Muhammad Na'eem Abdulqadir.
A large quantity of candy – estimated to be in excess of 1.8 million tonnes – were seized by the Public Authority for Consumer Protection (PACP) from the stores, located in the suburbs of Muttrah and Darsait. While the terms of imprisonment range between one to two years, the accused were fined and expelled from the country.
The first four
George, Jaisinh, Ranjitsinh and Ratansinh – accused numbers one to four, respectively – are Indian nationals. The latterly-named trio owns and has invested in the company.
The court found the aforementioned offenders guilty of displaying foodstuff which is unhealthy and harmful with the full knowledge and guilty of violating the legislations of the Consumer Protection Law and its provisions. They were sentenced to two years in prison, and a fine of Rials Omani (RO) 400 (Rs 56,581.01) was imposed on each of them.
They were also found guilty of storing food in inappropriate circumstances, which is a breach of the food safety laws prevalent in the country. They were sentenced to a year in prison, and a fine of RO10,000 (Rs 14,14,525.35) per head was imposed on them.
The court also accused them of violating the labour law by hiring unlicensed expatriates (non-Omani employees). They were fined RO4,000 (Rs 56,5810.14) each, and have to pay all the expenses resulting from the expulsion of the eighth (Shandan Kumar Teluk) and ninth accused (Muhammad Na'eem Abdulqadir) to their home countries.
They would be expelled for life at the end of their punishments, their establishments would be shut, and the rotten food products would be confiscated, but the court has pronounced them innocent of the offence, which has been criminalised under Article 294 of the Penal Law of the Sultanate.
Offenders 5-9
The court found offender numbers five to nine guilty of partially interfering in the display of the harmful foodstuff and of violating the legislations of the country's consumer protection law and its provisions.
While Sen, a Bangaladeshi national, and Abdulqadir, a Pakistani, were sentenced to a year in prison and a fine of RO400 per head, India's Baliwal and the Bangladeshi duo of Milan and Teluk were sentenced to two years in prison and were also fined RO400 each.
The court accused Teluk and Abdulqadir of violating the labour law by working for another employer. The duo was sentenced to a month in prison, at the end of which they would be expelled for life from the country along with Sen, Baliwal and Milan. However, they were pronounced not guilty of the rest of the charges levelled against them.
The case
While George was absent when the sentence was awarded, the others were present. The case was opened on January 28, 2012, when the PACP discovered that the offenders imported expired or nearly-expired goods, illegally altered the production and expiry dates on the products and either resold them or distributed them to retailers in the local market.
Special material was used to remove the original labels, and the new labels allegedly bore valid consumption dates for many years ahead. They are said to have repackaged the confectionery in new plastic bags with printed stickers bearing the new expiry date. These were then put on the market.
Five offences
Impressed with the PACP staff's efforts in unearthing the case, Ahmed Bin Ali Bin Hamid Al Balushi, chairman, public prosecution, and chairman, department of consumer protection affairs, gave them his nod to release the offenders' names and pictures.
The prosecution charged Jaisinh, Ranjitsinh and Ratansinh with five offences, namely (a) selling expired confectionery; (b) defrauding with regard to the nature of goods; (c) violating the regulations of the PACP; (d) storing foodstuff in inappropriate conditions, and (e) hiring unlicensed labour. The others were accused of helping the aforementioned, besides working without valid permits.
Al Balushi said, “The field enforcement teams went to the scene of the case after obtaining permission to inspect according to Article 80 of the Criminal Procedures Code and nabbed the defendants red-handed while they were changing the expiry date on the goods.” He added that the accused confessed to the crime.
“A judicial decision was issued to withdraw all expired goods from the markets in order to protect the health of the consumers. Another decision – to issue the defendants' names and pictures and to reveal the name of the company – was also issued,” Al Balushi said.
He informed that one of the defendants said he joined Dwarkadas Kalyanji and Co. three years ago, and that the company has been carrying on the nefarious activity since then. The company procures these products cheap from another country before the expiry date ends and extends the expiry date.
PACP chief
Praising the public prosecution's cooperation in the case, Said Bin Khamis Al Ka'abi, chairman, PACP, said the cooperation of all segments and individuals of the society reflected the awareness and recognition of the authority's role. He added that in terms of its volume and effects on the health and safety of the future generation and the society as a whole, this was the first case of its kind in the Sultanate of Oman.
“Such offences also affect the economy, as commercial activities based on fraud and forgery will lead to turmoil in the market and will have an adverse effect on the committed traders,” Al Ka'abi said, urging consumers, suppliers and traders to cooperate with the authority to eliminate these practices that seriously affect the health of childen, and increase the expenditure of the government on the health sector.
“Based on the directions of the public prosecution, PACP has obtained the sales invoices of the company and discovered that a large number of centres, in addition to private schools, Holy Quran memorisation centres, colleges and other institutions bought the goods,” he informed.
