RAIPUR: The Raipur police on Saturday registered an FIR against e-commerce store Flipkart holding it accountable for selling "banned (lethal) knives" on its platform. This came after two persons used a knife purchased from the online company to commit a murder and loot a petrol pump.
“The online shopping site Flipkart has violated our strict instructions to avoid selling or delivering lethal knives or sharp-edge weapons. The accused who killed a staff member of a petrol pump and looted money had ordered knives from Flipkart. Another employee was left critically injured in the knife-crime. An FIR has been lodged against Flipkart. The case was also registered against a courier agency ‘Elastic Run’ associated with Flipkart to deliver their products,” Vivek Shukla, additional superintendent of police (Nava Raipur) told TNIE.
The police arrested six persons including the manager and employees of Flipkart and the courier company under the BNS section 125-B (endanger human life or personal safety) and section 3(5) causing grievous hurt.
Earlier, the Raipur police, in a separate FIR, registered a case against the two for murder, causing hurt during robbery, and offences related to the Arms Act.
The two accused Sameer Tandon (21) and Kunal Tiwari (24) came on their motorbike to a petrol pump at Umaria in the outskirts of Raipur. Following some altercations there, the two accused attacked the employees Anil Gaikwad and Yogesh Miri and fled after looting the money from them. Miri succumbed to his injuries and Gaikwad is battling for his life in a hospital. The police said they succeeded in identifying the offenders observing the footage of CCTV cameras at the location while also gathering inputs from locals.
“During interrogation, the accused revealed they bought the knife used in the crime from Flipkart. We have earlier organised several meetings with various e-commerce companies asking them to refrain from making available banned knives or bladed items for sale on their platform. Mails too have been sent to them as the police expressed concerns over incidents of stabbings occurring in the capital,” said Shukla.
The Raipur senior superintendent of police Lal Umed Singh said that the police have no issues with kitchen or chef knives that are put on sale through e-commerce websites. “But many orders from Raipur were also placed for button, foldable, lethal designer knives to the companies, apparently with questionable intent. There are obvious risk perceptions behind keeping hazardous knives,” Singh added.