Supreme Court grants anticipatory bail to a restaurant owner in Kerala who was accused of selling adulterated shawarma

In a recent order, the Supreme Court (SC) of India granted anticipatory bail to a restaurant owner in Kerala who was accused of selling adulterated shawarma and causing the death of a customer. The two-judge bench constituting Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan in an order delivered on May 08 granted anticipatory bail to the accused, Shihad MP. Earlier in December 2023, the SC bench had already given temporary relief from arrest to the accused. While pronouncing the order on May 08, the SC said “We have perused the post-mortem report and the final opinion on the cause of death. Pursuant to the interim order dated 15th December 2023, the appellant has cooperated for investigation. Accordingly, the interim order dated 15th December 2023 is made absolute on the same terms and conditions.” 

In this case, a customer died 3 days after consuming the shawarma wrap that he ordered through the food delivery app Zomato. The police invoked Section 284 (negligent conduct involving poisonous substances) and Section 308 (culpable homicide, indicating intent to cause serious harm without causing actual death) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, against Shihad MP (petitioner). During the proceedings, the prosecution submitted that the guidelines for preparing Shawarma were violated by the restaurant which as a result caused widespread food poisoning. Therefore, the anticipatory bail plea filed by the petitioner was rejected by the Kerala High Court in November 2023, leading to an appeal before the top court.