Police in India charge Amazon executives in marijuana case – TechCrunch

Police in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh said on Saturday they have charged senior executives of Amazon India in a case that alleged that the e-commerce marketplace was allegedly used to smuggle marijuana in the South Asian market.

The police didn’t disclose how many senior executives they had charged, but said that executive directors of Amazon India were being named as accused under the nation’s narcotics law following discovery of facts as part of the investigation.

The police in Madhya Pradesh arrested two men with 20 kg of marijuana last week and said the men were using Amazon India website to smuggle the substance.

Amazon said last week that it was cooperating with the authority in the investigation. The home minister of the Indian state said this week that Amazon was not cooperating with the probe.

An Amazon India spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company has a “high bar on compliance and contractually our sellers are required to comply with all applicable laws for selling their products on amazon.in. We do not allow the listing and sale of products which are prohibited under law to be sold in India.”

“However, in case sellers list such products, as an intermediary, we take strict action as may be required under the law, when the same is highlighted to us. The issue was notified to us and we are currently investigating it. We assure full co-operation and support required to Investigating Authorities and Law Enforcement agencies with ongoing investigations and ensure full compliance to applicable laws.”

India is a key overseas market for Amazon. The American e-commerce giant has invested over $6.5 billion in its operations in India. The company is currently subject of an antitrust probe in the country and also in the middle of highly disputed multi-billion dollars deal involving Future Retail and Reliance Retail, two of India’s largest retail chains.