Ask why the people in Hyderabad city found themselves in a thrall of chronic ailments these days unlike their loving and caring elders who led a very healthy life because they were very cautious and believe in themselves and their hands when it comes to buying, preparing and consuming edible stuff or grocery items from outside?
The answer is simple. The markets in the Hyderabad City nowadays are flooded with duplicate grocery items and pesticide induced non-seasonal fruits. The quantum of such hazardous stuff swelled into markets especially during the Ramzan season giving the fact that people, more particularly, in Muslim quarters consume more during festivities then in general days.
Sale of duplicate grocery items in city markets is not new to Hyderabad as the incidents of police raids against the interstate evil gang of traders involved in preparing such hazardous stuff often came to the light especially during Ramzan.
This time too, the West Zone Task force carried out a raid on Wednesday and detained atleast four offenders who are said to have been involved in preparing and marketing spurious grocery items in different parts of the area especially the Begum Bazar – a primary market from where the stuff like edible oils, different variety of lentils, grocery and food items were supplied to retails outlets spreads across the city and state.
The police, this time, nab the kingpin identified as Kamal Bhati of Rajasthan who operates the entire chain of duplicate grocery items. Apart from the kingpin, three other accused were also apprehended that include Ajay Kumar Bhure, Premraj Purohit, Pukhraj Purohit and Syed Imran. They were accused of procuring duplicate grocery items and supplying the same in Hyderabad and neighbouring Karnataka.
It is said that the primary accused Kamal Bhati used to secure duplicate branded food items, boxes, stickers, labels and other stuff from Delhi and later prepare adulterated food items like ginger and garlic paste, tea powder, shampoo, soaps and etc before dumping them into wholesale markets.
It is said that the offenders used to hoard the adulterer stuff in a godown at Kattedan area – generally considered as a safe haven of such illegal activities, and later sold out to fly-by-night distributors like Premraj Purohit, Pukraj Purohit and Mahender Singh Rathod.
The West Zone Task Force team confiscated the duplicate grocery items worth Rs.16 lakhs while handing over the accused to Shahinayathgunj police.
Meanwhile, the city based community activists deplored such murky trade being carried out at the expense of the general public. While placing the viewpoint Mohammed Abdul Bari, a city based community activist said, “These evil traders have been playing with the lives of people for a long time by adultering the food items and supplying them to the markets through distributors while the gullible people bringing the health hazard to their homes by spending money. These offenders and fly-by-night distributors will manage to escape the conviction and will continue to play with the lives of people soon by re-entering into the markets with hazardous food stuff.”
