Gutka baron Dhariwal gets a year's imprisonment
Mumbai:
The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation Court on Friday sentenced
gutkha baron Manikchand Dhariwal to one year's simple imprisonment and
a fine of Rs 2,000 for using non- permissible magnesium carbonate in his
brand of gutka. The Special Court gave its ruling on Thursday in a case
of 1999 against Dhariwal by the civic body's health department. According
to the health department official, they had collected samples from a trader
in Sanghvi on December 31, 1997. They were sent for testing to the state
government laboratory and were found to contain magnesium carbonate, a
non-permissible ingredient. After appealing to the Joint Commissioner,
Food and Drugs Administration, in 1999, a case was filed against the gutka
baron, said officials from health department of the corporation. Special
Judge S R Yadav also handed a similar sentence to Dhariwal's distributor
Ramnath Dayam. Last year, a Special Court hearing the case of alleged
nexus between gutka barons and underworld had allowed Manikchand Gutka
owner Rasiklal Dhariwal to travel abroad, except UAE and Pakistan. The
court, however, had restrained Dhariwal from going to Abu Dhabi and Karachi
and directed police to return his passport in exchange for a deed of his
property worth Rs one crore. Dhariwal's lawyer Rajendra Shirodkar pleaded
that he had to go abroad to maintain his Non-Resident Indian (NRI) status.
The local court had held that there was "prima facie" evidence to show
that Dhariwal and another gutka baron J M Joshi had links with underworld
don Dawood Ibrahim. It had also issued notices to Dhariwal and Joshi asking
them why they should not be named as accused for allegedly helping Dawood
in gutka business. Dhariwal and Joshi, both were named in the confessional
statement of Jamiruddin Ansari, who was arrested by the police in October
last year, as having sold Gutka packaging machines to Dawood Ibrahim in
Karachi two years ago.
- Jan 27, 2006
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