Police have failed to take action against a shopkeeper for allegedly selling adulterated oil owing to laxity of food safety officials.

Even after 24 hours of collecting samples of the edible oil from a shop in Gardanibagh and lodging an FIR against the shopkeeper, officials of the Gardanibagh police station could not proceed as food safety officials didn’t turn up to receive the sample.

Whenever a suspected adulterated product is seized by police, food safety officials are informed to collect the sample for verification. Only after the verification, cops go ahead in the case and take action if required.

After seizing the suspected adulterated edible oil around 9am on Monday, Gardanibagh police station informed officials of the food safety wing but they didn’t turn up.

“The official said he couldn’t come because he was in Barh (55km east of Patna). He said even after returning from Barh after a few hours he would not be able to collect the sample as there was only one person in charge. He said he would come to collect the sample on Tuesday. Till now, no one has come,” said additional station house officer of Gardanibagh police station, Satyendra Shahi, around 3pm.

Shahi added: “One Ishwarchandra, the owner of a snack shop, said when he poured the oil into a pan, its colour changed to black, prompting him to come to the police station. We lodged an FIR against the shopkeeper, Anil Saw. We seized the remaining stock.”

When The Telegraph contacted Ashish Kumar, the designated officer, food safety wing around 3.30pm, he said officials of the unit had been sent to the police station to collect the sample.

However, sources at Gardanibagh police station said no official had come.

After this correspondent rang up Ashish, the food safety wing officials rushed to the police station around 5pm.