The Mumbai Police Crime Branch has busted a racket where replicas of high-end wristwatches were allegedly being manufactured in a factory at Masjid Bunder and sold as genuine. One person has been arrested.
According to officers, the racket was busted by Crime Branch Unit III following a tip-off. A team led by police inspector Nitin Patil worked with officials from Swatch Group (India) Private Limited to verify the information, after which the factory was raided on Tuesday.
“The factory was well organised and operating out of a godown on Kazi Sayyed Street. The accused had 12 labourers working for him, who would obtain spare parts in bulk and put them together, after which logos of Swatch products downloaded from the internet were added on the watches,” a Crime Branch officer said.
The officer said they seized 4,180 wristwatches from the godown and arrested the alleged mastermind of the racket, Afzal Ansari.
“Mr. Ansari claims to have been running the racket for the last six months. He earlier assembled and sold wristwatches on a smaller scale, and got into the racket after realising that there were large profits to be made by passing off the watches as branded ones. We have identified one more accused, who would add the logos on the watches, and are on the lookout for him,” the officer said.
Inquiries also indicate that Mr. Ansari would pose as a wholesaler and provide the replicas to small and medium retailers based in and around south Mumbai. He would charge prices lower than the going rate, but still make a hefty profit.
Mr. Ansari has been booked for cheating under the Indian Penal Code, along with sections of the Copyright Act. The police are interrogating him to find out how many retailers he sold the replicas to, so that the watches can be recovered, officers said.
