The Delhi High Court in a recent judgment dismissed the presence of the insects as merely “an incident that can occur due to open storage”.

A team of food inspectors had paid a visit to Sodhi’s shop in the Okhla Industrial Area on February 22, 1987 and bought 600 grams of flour.

Samples from the purchase were sent to the Public Analyst, who concluded the flour was “adulterated” after chancing upon three live and three dead insects in about 200 grams of the sample.

Sodhi was promptly booked under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act and was pronounced guilty a decade later by the New Delhi Magistrate Court.

“No purchaser would have ever demanded flour containing three live or three dead insects or any egg or larvae,” the Magistrate said while passing the verdict against him.

Sodhi challenged the judgment before the Additional Sessions Court, which promptly acquitted him on the ground that the Analyst had separately mentioned that the flour indeed was of a “standard quality”.