Bangladeshi restaurant owner charged with manslaughter in UK

London: Discrediting Indian food in the foreign country, a Bangladeshi restaurant owner on Monday charged with manslaughter after a severe nut-allergy patient died of consuming meal from his Indian-food speciality restaurant in North Yorkshire county of England. He was put on trial.

Mohammed Zaman had, however, denied the accusation of killing Paul Wilson by gross negligence, perverting six food safety offences against him in the court.

According to officers, the 53-year-old restaurant owner had been receiving frequent warnings to stop putting his customer’s health at risk but, he ignored each one of them.

In January 2014, the 38-year-old Wilson was found dead at his residence in Helperby locality of North Yorkshire after consuming a meal bought from Zaman’s ‘Indian Garden’ restaurant in Easingwold area. The deceased had reportedly told the restaurant’s staff to exclude nuts from his meal.

Highlights:

• An analysis of the dish’s leftover recovered from Wilson’s house also demonstrated that peanuts were the reason of his demise.
• Earlier, a United Kingdom trading standards officer found evidence of peanuts in a dish she had been told was peanut-free.
• The officer, on further investigation, also found a box of labeled peanuts in the kitchen of Jaipur Spice restaurant, another venture owned by Zaman.
• The court also received information that Zaman used to substitute almond powder with cheaper groundnut mix containing peanuts for cutting costs.