The city is thriving in fake goods that look as good as the original but also causes the State exchequer to lose several crores of rupees every year.
Last Friday, the Central Crime Branch and the staff members of Enforcers of Intellectual Property Rights (EIPR) raided two units, identified as Vittal Automobiles at Muneshwara block in Girinagar, and Moti Automobiles in the same area, which were allegedly manufacturing fake vehicle spare parts and supplying it to retail shops across the city.
Over 3,000 products, ready to be supplied to various spare parts shops across the city, were seized.
The owner of the units, Ramesh Badri from Vittal Automobiles, and Mahipal Jain was arrested from Moti Automobiles, confessed that they were in the counterfeit business for the last one year and supplied to all automobile shops across the city .
A senior police officer, who supervised the operation, said that though the fake goods racket is thriving in the city it is difficult to expose it without the help of experts.
“The goods look as good as genuine parts and have a huge market since the parts of cheaper compares to the branded products. This is because there is no VAT on the product nor the manufactures are bothered to pay taxes to the state exchequer. The retailer in return also gets a whopping margin compared to the genuine products,” he said.
On an average one out of every three vehicle which get repaired were using these fake goods in the city. Since the city has highest population of the motor vehicles, the fake traders are make a killing, a senior police officer said adding that the poor conviction rates is also not deterrent enough to contain the growing market.
Imran Gowhar
The Central Crime Branch raided two units and seized over 3,000 products
