Phone batteries worth Rs 1.8 crore seized

Four men were arrested with over 90,000 China-made cellphone batteries valued at Rs 1.8 crore.

Four men were arrested with over 90,000 China-made cellphone batteries valued at Rs 1.8 crore.

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The quartet, who allegedly planned to sell the batteries by slapping on stickers of the Nokia brand, was arrested near Crawford Market in the wee hours of Sunday.

“On a tip-off we got on Saturday, we kept a watch in the area. We saw these four men pulling two handcarts,” said Sub-Inspector S. Chavan. “A check of the cartons yielded fake batteries and stickers, which the accused said were meant for despatch to Delhi.”

Two of the arrested accused have been identified as Maqbool Sheikh and Ravindra Singh. The other two were labourers hired to wheel the carts.

“The accused planned to sell the fake batteries as originals at a subsidized price by pasting the Nokia stickers,” said Chavan. “We want to get to the kingpin of this racket and track the distribution network.”