Amazon Officials Booked in Online Drug Trade Case For Not Cooperating in Probe: MP Home Minister

Amid controversy around Amazon allegedly selling ganja, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Sunday said that a case has been registered under section 38 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act against the company after it failed to cooperate with the investigation in the case despite warning.

“I had warned Amazon four days ago. But even after the warning, it has failed to understand… But it should have cooperated with the government. If Amazon is doing business with a company that has fake name, account and GST number; and that too dealing in drugs,” Mishra said in a statement on twitter.

“Online drug trade is a more serious crime than cyber crime and such crime will not be encouraged in the state,” he added.

Police in Bhind district of the state 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.

The Madhya Pradesh Home Minister said that he won’t let such crimes happen in the state. “It is the first crime in the country where a case has been registered under 38 of NDPS Act. Till now, Amazon has not cooperated in the investigation and I am requesting it again to cooperate in the investigation,” he said.

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.

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