The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Sunday demanded the arrest of executive directors of Amazon India accused in the case of smuggling 720 kg of marijuana in Madhya Pradesh’s Bind district under the guise of selling a sweetener through the e-commerce platform.
Last week, a case under section 38 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was registered against executive directors of Amazon India which operates as ASSL in the country.
Alleging discriminatory treatment by authorities in drug-trafficking cases registered under the NDPS Act, trade body compared the drugs case with the case involving Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan, in the Mumbai cruise drugs bust case.
Noting that the police has yet to arrest those employed with the e-portal despite naming company officials, according to The Print, CAIT said, “It speaks of the sorry state of affairs for a sensational and critical matter related to drug trafficking.”
CAIT national president B.C. Bhartia said while the NCB “did not waste time” in arresting Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan on the basis of a WhatsApp chat, in the case against Amazon, the police have made no arrests despite naming company officials.
Secretary-general Praveen Khandelwal further accused the Madhya Pradesh police of preferential behaviour towards Amazon officials. Non-action on the part of state police clearly shows discriminatory treatment between the citizens, he said. “Instead of arresting the Amazon officials, the MP Police preferred to give them notice and waited for Amazon to reply. Under the NDPS Act, there is no provision of any notice. There can not be two different treatments under the law as the Constitution of India guarantees right to equality,” Khandelwal was quoted as saying.
A case was registered under the NDPS Act at Gohad police station in the district on November 13 after 21.7 kilograms of ganja was seized from Gwalior residents Bijendra Tomar and Suraj alias Kallu Pawaiya.
Police questioning led to the arrest of Mukul Jaiswal, another Gwalior resident, and purchaser Chitra Balmiki, a resident of Mehgaon in Bhind, police said.
The investigation revealed that Pawaiya and Jaiswal had formed a company named ‘Babu Tex’ and got it registered on Amazon as a seller. They supplied ganja from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh through the company under the guise of selling stevia, a plant-based sweetener.
On Saturday, Bhind’s Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar said, “Amazon informed that 10 more dealers are registered at the same address (Babu Tex), out of which six sellers have supplied 360 packets of marijuana worth Rs 47 lakhs (via PhonePe).”
Bhind SP had appealed to Amazon India to cooperate in the investigation. On Friday, a team of four members including Amazon company’s legal head Swati Agarwal and lawyer Sumant Narang reached Bhind and met the SP Manoj Kumar Singh.
An Amazon spokesperson had said the company’s platform enables third-party sellers to display, list and offer for sale products to customers directly. The company does not allow the listing and sale of products that are prohibited under the law in India, he had said.
“The issue was notified to us and we are currently investigating whether there is any non-compliance on part of the seller. We assure full cooperation and support required to investigating authorities, the spokesperson had added.
(With inputs from agencies)
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