KATHMANDU, Sept 7: Police arrested the proprietor and the manager of Anamol Sweets for selling sweets made with low-grade vegetable ghee. Also, the proprietor of Kanaiya Ghee Industry was arrested for selling sub-standard ghee. 

Kedar Rijal, Superintendent of Kathmandu District Police Range (KDPR), told Republica that Anamol Sweets´ proprietor B.L Sharma and manager Suman Thapa and Lok Prasad Agrawal, proprietor of Kanaiya Ghee, have been arrested by the district police on Wednesday afternoon.

“Sharma was arrested in Kalimati from his residence whereas Thapa was nabbed from the Anamol outlet at Bhatbhateni. We arrested Agrawal at District Administration Office (DAO), Babarmahal,” Rijal said. Cases will be filed at the DAO tomorrow, he said.

Sharma who is 87 years old has been admitted to Norvic Hospital in Thapathali on health grounds while the other two arrested by the police are currently lodged at Hanumandhoka police station. 

KDPR plans to file separate cases against them on Thursday under the Black Marketeering Act 1974 as they were found cheating the consumer by selling ghee products having a nominal content of pure ghee.

“We will start investigation into their alleged involvement in cheating the consumer and seek statement from them from Thursday,” Rijal said. 

DAO had directed the police on Tuesday to immediately arrest the proprietor of Anamol Sweets and others for selling sweets made with substandard vegetable ghee. 

Acting on complaints that Anamol Sweets was using low-quality ghee in the sweets, a DAO team raided its outlet and production unit at Bhatbhateni last week.

An investigation report prepared by the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) shows that the sweet producer used low-grade vegetable ghee with almost negligible content of pure ghee to cheat the consumer. Anamol had purchased low-grade vegetable ghee from Kanaiya Ghee Industry at far lower price than the prevalent market rate.

According to Jeevan Prabha Lama, director general of DFTQC, Anamol Sweets cheated the consumer by using low-grade vegetable ghee in which purity was almost nil.

In a raid, a market monitoring team led by a senior official of DAO, had found 10 tins (11kg per tin) of sub-standard vegetable ghee and 100 packets of spices in the Anamol Sweets production unit and showroom in Bhatbhateni last Tuesday. The team comprised of representatives from Nepal Bureau of Standard and Metrology (NBSM), DFTQC and consumer rights organizations. 

According to Jyoti Baniya, general secretary of the Consumers Rights Protection Forum that filed complaints against these firms, if anyone is found cheating the consumer with substandard products in the name of pure and quality products, he can get one-year jail term and compensation as per the Black Marketeering Act.

source: http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=35741

I am kind of sad. I always held BL Sharma very highly. I think Binod Chaudhary's wife Sarika his daughter, and BL has been friends with king Tribhuvan, BP, Girija, KPBhattarai etc. A man with such a great history found cheating on his customers... For what? He is too old  to be greedy about money, but I guess the logic doesn't work anymore.

I am also glad that our police seems to be doing their job. Restaurants quality in KTM has to be improved alot. I think we should put strict restriction on giving permit for running new restaurants, and kitchens should be within the eyesight of customers. I am generally against putting alot of red tapes on these low investment business, as restaurants are generally an avenue for relatively poor people to start a business, but something needs to be done to address this issue.

Me too, I thought BL Sharma was a man of highest standards especially with desserts..and yes they had relationships with the kings of his days too..:(!! I have had a lot of sweets from ANMOL and all events were cartered by them.

I hope its just low standard of ghee and not the dhal ko paani and khutta le khulcheko mithaii that they sell..really hoping its not that bad!!

I would rather eat mithai, haluwa, swari, jerri from the roti pasal near my house where cows walk around freely, flies swarm in abundance and the shauji does not look so clean as well,,neither does his store.. because atleast he is not cheating..

Batoma madhise le bechne chana chatpat is probably more hygenic than gudpak from the clean and posh looking store in newroad.