A customer who went to buy live chickens in Boalmari, Faridpur, narrowly escaped being cheated. A seller was caught red-handed trying to pass off a dead chicken along with freshly slaughtered birds, and a mobile court fined the owner of Alamin Poultry House Tk 15,000.

The fine was imposed on the afternoon of Thursday, 10 September, in a drive at the upazila's chicken market by upazila nirbahi officer and executive magistrate S M Rakibul Hasan.

According to the court and local sources, a woman went to Alamin Poultry House in the Boalmari chicken market at midday to buy two live Sonali chickens. The seller, Bappi Molla, slaughtered the two birds in front of her and put them in the cleaning drum — where a dead chicken had already been placed. When handing over the cleaned birds, he tried to include the dead one with the fresh ones.

The customer noticed and protested, causing a stir in the market, and a mobile court was convened on the spot. Bappi Molla admitted the offence in front of witnesses and was fined Tk 15,000 under section 24(1) of the Animal Slaughter and Meat Quality Control Act 2011. In the same drive, several shopkeepers who had put chicken cages on the road, blocking the public way, were warned and told to remove them.

UNO S M Rakibul Hasan said the poultry trader was fined for cheating a customer by giving a dead chicken in place of a live one; market monitoring and such drives will continue in the public interest, and a repeat offence will bring tougher legal action.

The Boalmari case shows that even a chicken slaughtered in front of the buyer can be switched before it reaches the bag; market-level checks like this one are what keep poultry buyers' trust.

Source: banglanews24