Three jailed in Patanjali "soan papdi" case in Uttarakhand

A court in Pithoragarh has sentenced three people to six months imprisonment for violating food safety standards in making Patanjali Elaichi Soan Papdi.

Assistant prosecution officer Ritesh Verma said that Pithoragarh chief judicial magistrate Sanjay Singh on Saturday also imposed fines of Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000 on them, besides the jail sentence.

Verma said that the court sentenced Leeladhar Pathak, a shopkeeper from the Berinag town of Pithoragarh, to six months imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 for selling the product.

The court sentenced Ajay Joshi, assistant manager of Patanjali's authorised representative Kanhaji Distributors Pvt Ltd located in Nainital’s Ramnagar, to six months imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000.

Abhishek Kumar, assistant general manager of the company, has been sentenced to six months’ imprisonment with a fine of Rs 25,000.

He said that the three were convicted under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006.

Verma said that after collecting samples of Patanjali Elaichi Navratna Soan Papdi from Pathak's shop on 17 September 2019, they were sent to the National Laboratory in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad for testing.

A case in this regard was registered in 2021 after reports found the samples did not meet the food safety standards.