A severed tip of a human finger found inside an ice cream earlier this month belonged to an employee of a Pune factory where the frozen dessert was prepared, police said on Thursday. A DNA report from the state forensic science laboratory (FSL) confirmed that the fingertip was a match for blood samples of factory employee Omkar Pote, police said.
Pote had been trying to retrieve the lid of an ice cream box when his fingertip got sliced by a factory machine. Investigators will now probe who was the person responsible at the factory to carry out a quality check of the ice-creams manufactured.
On June 12, a Malad-based doctor, Brendan Ferrao, had ordered three Yummo ice creams through a delivery app. When Ferrao bit into a butterscotch cone, he felt something odd in his mouth. He later discovered it was a portion of a human finger. Ferrao raised a complaint on Yummo’s social media page and a customer care executive called up, assuring to look into the matter. But when there was no response thereafter, Ferrao approached the Malad police. An FIR was registered on June 13.
Police tracked the supply chain and found that the ice cream had been delivered to Ferrao from a godown in Malad. Before that, it was kept at a godown in Bhiwandi where it came from a godown in Sakinaka. It had made its way to Sakinaka from Hadapsar where it came from the Fortune Dairy, Indapur (Pune).
A police team reached Indapur where the ice cream had been manufactured a month ago. They learnt about Pote’s injury and also discovered that the incident had not been reported to the local police. Pote was asked to undergo relevant blood tests and his report was sent to FSL, which was analysing the severed finger.
Pote told police that while the ice cream was being made, a lid from an ice cream box fell into the machine. He was trying to retrieve the lid when the machine sliced his fingertip. He noticed blood oozing out from his finger and rushed to a private doctor. He has claimed he had no knowledge that the severed fingertip remained in the ice cream. Police are contemplating serving Pote with a notice for negligence.
