Octogenarian held for making fake bottle caps

Crime Branch of Delhi Police has arrested two persons, including an 83-year-old man, and busted a racket of manufacturing fake caps that were used for capping bottles of fake scotch whiskey. HT reports.

Crime Branch of Delhi Police has arrested two persons, including an 83-year-old man, and busted a racket of manufacturing fake caps that were used for capping bottles of fake scotch whiskey.

HT Image

The police have also seized five different machines used for manufacturing these fake caps. A team of crime branch led by inspector Rajesh Sharma and sub-inspector Sunil Sharma conducted the raids and recovered thousands of finished and unfinished fake caps.

"Finished and semi-finished caps of Johnnie Walker Red Label, Johnnie Walker Black Label and Johnnie Walker Double Black Label, metal sheets from which caps are made and cartons have been recovered. The main accused, Darshan Lal Sharma, is a formed Mr Delhi and was in this business for the last 40 years," DCP (crime) Ashok Chand said. According to police, the gang used to change their location quite frequently and sell fake caps to other states including Kolkata and Mumbai.

The present consignment of caps that the police seized was for Kolkata. The cost of making a fake cap was R10. However, they sold each cap of Johnny Walker Red Label for R125 and Black Label for R225.

"Currently they were running the factory in Shastri Nagar. They were manufacturing fake bottle caps of various brands of scotch whiskey. Since the machines were heavy, they always rented ground floors,” Chand added.

The five machines included a sheet cutter, a 3-stage cap-cutting machine, a hand press pressure machine for installing the dispenser inside the cap and a groove making machine.

The Regional Head of EIPR (Enforcers of Intellectual Property Rights) of Johnnie Walker Brand also joined the raid at the spot.

"Investigations revealed that Darshan Lal Sharma had been manufacturing fake caps for the last 40 years and had never been caught," the DCP said.

Sharma had been running the factories but had kept one Ranjit Sharma as his associate for the last 2 years due to old age. Ranjit was arrested last year for manufacturing fake caps.