BBD Bag: Each of the 13 people arrested for allegedly supplying carcass meat to eateries will be asked to pay a demurrage of Rs 1 crore - the first time such a move has been initiated for cheating consumers.

The consumer affairs department is getting ready to start a case against the arrested accused, minister Sadhan Pandey said on Tuesday. This case will be separate from the criminal case the police are probing.

"I will write to chief minister Mamata Banerjee to seek her clearance for starting cases against the accused suo motu," said Pandey, minister in charge of consumer affairs and self-help groups. "We have checked with our legal team... There are provisions under 12(1)(d) of the state consumer protection act wherein we can start cases individually against the accused and seek demurrage of up to a crore each."

The minister was speaking on the sidelines of a Ficci seminar.

Officials in the consumer affairs department said these cases would be civil in nature and would be tried at the state consumer forum. "We have already proposed an amendment to the consumer protection act so that the demurrage value is raised from Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 crore. We are told that the Centre has accepted our suggestion and the amendment is scheduled to be placed in the monsoon session of Parliament," Pandey said.

A racket involved in supplying rotten carcass meat from a dumping yard in Budge Budge, around 30km from Calcutta, to eateries in the city was unearthed in April. The chain would allegedly carry carcass meat to cold stores, where the meat would be processed before being supplied to eateries.

A probe was initiated by a special investigation team from South 24-Parganas. The inquiry was later handed over to the CID. A month on, the chief minister set up a "high-power" committee headed by the chief secretary and comprising secretaries of at least eight departments, along with the DGP of Bengal and the Calcutta police commissioner, to probe the matter.

Sources in the CID said reports of the samples of meat sent to the forensic science laboratory are yet to come. "We have already spoken to the scientists of the lab and the reports should reach us shortly," said a CID officer. Chargesheets will be filed once the reports arrive.