The Malad Police, investigating the case of a piece of flesh found in ice cream, have located the worker from the Pune factory who lost part of his finger in an accident. The worker, identified as Omkar Pote, had injured his finger while operating a scotch crushing machine on May 11. The police have sent his DNA sample to the Forensic Science Lab (FSL) to match it with the flesh found in the ice cream scoop.
DCP Anand Bhoite confirmed that Pote admitted to the injury but claimed it was not severe. Bhoite stated, “For the final confirmation we are awaiting a report from the FSL to establish that it was his finger’s flesh that was found on the ice cream scoop.”
The police traced the ice cream supply chain from Malad to Bhiwandi, Sakinaka, Hadapsar, and finally to the Indapur factory, where Pote works. Upon inquiry, they discovered Pote had indeed met with an accident at the factory on May 11 but did not inform his superiors.
If confirmed that it was Pote’s flesh in the ice cream, action will be taken against him and his supervisor for negligence, a police officer said.
The incident came to light when Brandon Ferrao, a 26-year-old doctor, found a piece of nail in his Yummo’s butterscotch ice cream on June 12. “Initially I thought it’s a nut but when I carefully examined it, I found that it was flesh with a broken nail attached to it,” said Ferrao. He had ordered the ice cream online from Zepto and filed a complaint with Malad police station.
In response, Yummo Ice Cream company stated, “We are taking this incident very seriously. We have stopped manufacturing at this third-party manufacturing facility. We have isolated the said product at the facility, our warehouses and in process to do the same at the market level. We are a law-abiding company and shall fully co-operate and support the authorities to investigate the matter thoroughly.”