BHOPAL: Economic Offences Wing has registered a preliminary enquire against the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX) Mumbai for supplying the substandard and adulterated black pepper to the Betul Oil limited company (BOL) of MP.
EOW director general Sushoban Banerjee informed that company had filed a complaint on Tuesday.
NCDEX commodity exchange platform is a Government of India undertaking company commodity exchange platform that guarantees the supply of goods. Its clients pays it accordingly for the guaranteed deliveries of goods.
BOL has purchased the 1729.91 ton of Malabar black pepper grade-I by paying Rs 72 crore to the exchange.
BOL alleged that before the delivery of the consignment, the news about the supplies started coming in the local newspapers of Kochi. The news stories claimed that the supplied black pepper is adulterated with burnt diesel.
BOL sent a sample of the supplied material from the warehouse to the government approved laboratory.
The laboratory report revealed that the pepper is mixed with mineral oil, which is harmful for human consumption.
Subsequently BOL asked the exchange to cancel the supply and to return the amount of Rs 72 crore- which the exchanged refused to entertain.
EOW has registered the PE against the Exchange, because importantly the commodity exchange always collects the sample check the quality and then supplies it to the company concern.
In this case, the produce, which was kept in the warehouse, was substandard and adulterated. Not only this, the public servants who are working at the exchange had to obtain the quality certificate from the government laboratory. However, in this case the certificate, which the Exchange furnished, is allegedly fake.
