A court in Uttarakhand has handed a six-month jail sentence to a Patanjali official and two others following a failed quality test of Patanjali Navratna Elaichi Soan Papdi. The samples were collected in September 2019 after concerns were raised about the product's quality.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Sanjay Singh of Pithoragarh sentenced Abhishek Kumar, Assistant General Manager of Patanjali Food and Herbal Park; Ajay Joshi, Assistant Manager of Kanha Ji Distributor Private Limited; and shopkeeper Leeladhar Pathak under Section 59 of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006.

Samples collected from Pathak's shop were found to be of substandard quality after testing in Rudrapur. Consequently, cases were registered against the three men by the District Food Safety Officer.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate's court stated that failure to serve their sentences would result in additional imprisonment ranging from 7 days to 6 months for the accused.

This development coincides with Patanjali's involvement in a case related to misleading advertisements. The Supreme Court has reserved its order on contempt notices issued to yoga guru Baba Ramdev and others in this matter. Baba Ramdev and Patanjali Ayurved managing director Acharya Balkrishna have been exempted from physical presence in court hearings.