Some of the merchants stroll into a retailer's shop that had remained open. ``SDM ki gadi chali gayi?'' (Has the SDM's car left?) someone asks. ``Gayi, gayi,'' another says. Yet, the others do not look relieved, despite the fact that the only occupant of the vehicle was its driver and the SDM under whom the area falls was not in it.

Their lives at the moment seemed to revolve with the wheels of the SDM's vehicle. Maybe it was going to pick up the SDM, someone suggests. And soon their fears come true. SDM Chandrakar Bharati materialises right in front of the shop as if from nowhere followed by a band of officials and cops.

He walks on, stepping into a ghee merchant's shop he finds on the way, steps out, walks on and disappears. This was a routine happening now and the downing of shutters by merchants a routine response, according to the merchants.

The purpose, according to Bharti, behind these trips to shops was merely to sample oils stocked by merchants for tests. He did not agree that these trips were rather ineffective in the face of merchants pulling down shutters, though he would not reveal if he could get any samples on his trip on Monday.

``Why should they close their shops if they do not have adulterated oil?'' he asks. The merchants ask this among themselves too. ``Itna kyon darte ho bhai? Kya hamne afeem rakhi hai?'' (Why are you so scared? We haven't kept any drugs), one of them asks an edgy colleague.

Soon they are joined by someone who turns out to be a leader of the Delhi Vegetable Oil Traders' Association. ``We are not against cooperating with the authorities by giving samples of our stocks for testing. But we cannot put up with the harassment by SDM and his troops,'' he says.

``Is tarah dahshat rahi to das din mein tel ka market poora band ho jayega,'' (If this fear continues, then this oil market will close down within 10 days), another says. Dahshat (fear) is the word that they all like to use most. Dahshat is what rules their lives today.

``If the SDM and the policemen happen to stroll into my shop, and a sample fails the test I immediately risk losing half a crore of rupees in litigation. I would have earned just 25 paise on a tin of oil, a dealer says. ``We have no way to know if our oil stocks will not fail the tests. We do not have labs. All we can do is to stop buying any fresh stocks,'' a dealer says.

Many oil mills like Merico (Suffola) and ITC ( Sundrop) have suspended supplies. Their tankers are stopped at the Delhi border and samples tested. The sampling methods here are so archaic that even flawless material would fail the tests. In ten days the market will have not a drop of oil. And once this crisis ends 70 per cent of oil dealers would have closed their shops, they say.

Maybe the traders hope the old stocks last them till the crisis ends and oil supplies are normalised.

Thus, while the SDM walks his stately gait down Khari Baoli with his men, and oil traders hide behind their doors, nothing is gained except that good oil is shut out from the shops and possible bad oil remains undisclosed for fear of arrests and litigation.