Noting that "only in India we are so liberal with the health concerns, the Supreme Court, on Tuesday, 7 June, refused to entertain pre-arrest bail pleas of two Madhya Pradesh-based businesspersons, who were accused in a food adulteration case.
A vacation bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and MR Shah was considering a plea for anticipatory bail of Prawar Goyal and Vineet Goyal.
Their lawyer, Puneet Jain, who pressed for his clients' bail, saying the charges pertaining to the food adulteration were bailable, was left baffled when the judges asked him if he and his family were willing to eat the quality of wheat sold by his clients.
“Will you or your family eat this food? We will consider allowing the bail if your answer is a yes. Or is it that ‘let other people die, why should we bother?’”
The lawyer, later, decided to withdraw his petition after the court hinted that they are not inclined to accept the bail pleas. "On the prayer of Christi Jain, the Special Leave Petition is dismissed as withdrawn," the bench noted in its order on Tuesday. Two of their anticipatory bail pleas with the same FIR were dismissed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court on 25 January and 12 March respectively.
The two businesspersons have been accused of selling wheat after polishing it with non-edible golden offset colour. Several thousand kilograms of polished wheat was seized from their property after a raid in December.
Besides being booked for cheating, the accused have been charged under Sections 272 (adulteration of food or drink intended for sale) and 273 (sale of noxious food or drink) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which provides for maximum jail term of six months or maximum fine of Rs 1,000 or both.
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