Two held for selling coolers in name of reputed brand

With the rise in the demand for water coolers this summer, a couple of retailers and assemblers did brisk business selling hundreds of water coolers with fake labels of a reputed brand. By the time the original brand owners discovered it, the two had sold 600 pieces each. Leena Dhankhar reports.

With the rise in the demand for water coolers this summer, a couple of retailers and assemblers did brisk business selling hundreds of water coolers with fake labels of a reputed brand. By the time the original brand owners discovered it, the two had sold 600 pieces each.

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In a raid on a shop at Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road in Sector 18 and another on New Railway Road on Wednesday, police, along with an anti-counterfeiting agency, Brand Protectors India Investigators (BPII), seized 50 desert water coolers with fake labels of the electronic company, Crompton Greaves.

After the firm approached BPII, it mapped and investigated key markets in Gurgaon and zeroed in on the two key peddlers.

A case of fraud under IPC Section 420 and under Section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1958 was registered at Sector 18 and City police stations and two employees were arrested.

The shops were identified as Chowdhary Coolers on the New Railway Road and New Fancy Coolers on Sukhrali Road. The shop owners, Chahat and Akbar, were also arrested.

“Counterfeits kill. Counterfeiters start with low-value goods but eventually graduate to counterfeiting high value products like pharmaceuticals and liquor with higher margins, thereby endangering human lives.

“Revenue losses to government, brand owners and risk to human life - that’s what counterfeit and duplicate goods do. Zero tolerance should be the policy against counterfeits,” said Dhirendra Singh, director, BPII.

The investigating official of the case, assistant sub-inspector Sunil Kumar, said, “The accused were arrested from the spot and we are conducting raids at other places also. The duo was presented in court, which remanded them in judicial custody for 14 days.”