MP police charge Amazon India execs in alleged marijuana smuggling case

Police in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhind district on Saturday registered a case against executive directors of Amazon India after busting a racket which allegedly sold ganja (cannabis) under the guise of selling a sweetener through the e-commerce platform.

Amazon had said in a statement earlier that it does not allow sale of illegal products through its platform, and it was cooperating with the probe in the matter.

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, Bhind Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar Singh told PTI.

The FIR did not mention any individual official by name, he said.

Section 38 deals with the role of companies and their managements in an offence related to narcotic substances.

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, the SP said.

Their questioning led to the arrest of Mukul Jaiswal, another Gwalior resident, and purchaser Chitra Balmiki, a resident of Mehgaon in Bhind, he said.

The investigation revealed that Pawaiya and Jaiswal had formed a company named ‘Babu Tex’ and got it registered on Amazon as a seller, Singh said.

They supplied ganja from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh through the company under the guise of selling stevia, a plant-based sweetener, he said.

Earlier this week, 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 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.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.

As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.

Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.

Digital Editor