Delhi Police busts counterfeit smoking paper racket in Okhla, seizes material worth over Rs 1 crore

New Delhi, Oct 3 (PTI) The Delhi Police has busted a large-scale counterfeit smoking paper racket in the Okhla Industrial Area and seized fake packaging material and products valued at more than Rs one crore, an official said on Friday.

The action followed a complaint by a private company, which alleged that duplicate cartons, labels and packaging of its smoking paper product line were being manufactured and circulated in the Delhi-NCR market.

The counterfeit products, closely imitating the original brand, were allegedly causing losses to the company and misleading consumers, the police in a statement said.

Acting on inputs, a team raided the illegal packaging unit in Okhla and arrested key accused Tausam Ansari, a resident of the Tehkhand village, while two others, Sagir Ahmed and Shahnawaz Ahmed, both residents of Sangam Vihar, were bound down. The alleged mastermind and proprietor, Mohammad Jiyarat, is absconding, read the statement.

During the raid, police seized 18 boxes of inner cone cigarette packaging, 45 kg of printed inner cone sheets, 33 printing plates, one printing dye and a heavy-duty printing machine.

"The accused sourced low-cost products, which were then rebranded using forged holograms, labels and packaging to resemble genuine products. These were allegedly distributed to dealers and wholesalers across Delhi-NCR, mostly through cash transactions," said the officer.

The police said further investigation is ongoing and efforts are on to nab the absconding mastermind. PTI BM BM MNK MNK