Kolkata Police’s Enforcement Branch has registered a case against a 45-year-old man and others for allegedly packaging, storing and selling adulterated drinking water in the city, bringing a suspected counterfeit water supply operation under investigation.
The FIR was filed at Tangra Police Station on a complaint by sub-inspector P Singh of the Enforcement Branch’s food and edible oil section. Police identified the primary accused as Sudhir Haldar, a resident of Trinath Pally under Bidhannagar South Police Station limits.
According to the case details reported by the Times of India, the accused allegedly refilled and stored drinking water before distributing it as packaged water. Police said the water appeared to be spurious and heavily adulterated. The supplied report did not specify the quantity recovered, the locations where the water was sold or the method used to establish adulteration.
Haldar has been booked under provisions relating to the adulteration of food or drink intended for sale, the sale of noxious food or drink, public nuisance, criminal conspiracy and cheating. The allegations have not been tested in court, and the registration of an FIR does not establish guilt.
The case places attention on a less visible part of Kolkata’s urban services system: the handling and sale of drinking water outside formal municipal distribution networks. Packaged water is consumed across homes, offices, shops, construction sites and public-facing businesses, making storage, refilling, labelling and distribution important points in the city’s food-safety chain. The available case details, however, do not establish the extent of the alleged operation or identify the businesses or consumers supplied.
The Enforcement Branch is investigating the matter and is expected to trace the wider network referred to in the case. The police account names Haldar along with some others, but the supplied report does not provide further identities or say whether any additional arrests have been made.
The FIR was initiated by the Enforcement Branch’s food and edible oil section, indicating that the investigation is being handled as a suspected food and drink adulteration matter rather than solely as a local dispute over water sales. Further details about seizures, laboratory testing, distribution points and the next legal steps were not available in the supplied report.
The immediate official action is the criminal investigation registered at Tangra Police Station. The case will now depend on the evidence collected by police, including any material examination and tracing of the alleged supply network.
