Health officials stooping to defame bakery in Kottayam caught on camera

KOTTAYAM: Two municipal health department officials who allegedly trapped a bakery owner by creating a false case during a routine inspection are in trouble after their act was caught on the camera installed in the bakery. In the CCTV footage in the Aariyaas Grand Bakers here, it was found that one of the official had lifted two cakes from a cupboard in the cake making room in the bakery and placed it on the floor.The second officer accompanying him, a woman, is seen clicking photographs of the cakes lying on the floor. Two staff of the bakery came inside the room at this point and the officer is seen showing them the cakes lying on the floor. Soon he goes out of the room with the two cakes.
The inspection by the Health Department was held on Wednesday. The officials had taken the cakes to the nearby municipal office and had displayed them for the media and public with the name of the bakery prominently displayed next to it. Though the officials claimed that they had found cakes lying on the floor, the bakery owner was not served a notice or was asked to pay a fine. However, the images of the cake along with the board displaying the name of the bakery was widely circulated on the social media since Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the owner of the shop Raveendran who came to know about the incident rushed to the bakery and checked the CCTV footages. Two cameras were installed in the cake making room. The act of the officials were filmed by both the cameras from two different angles. Meanwhile, the Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association stepped in and filed complaints with the Municipal secretary, Health Committee Chairman and District Collector. The CCTV footage was shown to the authorities.
"Since the bakery owner had a camera, the truth came out. But for a struggling businessman who does not have the funds to install camera the case would have been different," said K K Philipkutty, District President of the Association. Raveendran, the owner of the Bakery was concerned over the move to malign the goodwill he had created over the years. "They just wanted to malign my name. Who will compensate for this defamation," he asked. The CCTV footage which shows the officials laying the trap is being continuously showed on the Television set in the shop for the customers to see the truth, he added. According to the staff who were in the shop at the time of the inspection, the officials had arrived at the bakery not in uniform. When we told them not to enter the air-conditioned cake making room wearing a footwear, he got angry, said a staff.
Meanwhile, the attempt to contact the Health Superintendent Vidyadharan and Health Standing Committee chairperson Sheeba Punnen failed as both did not respond to the phone calls.