Delhi Police busts racket manufacturing fake goods; six arrested

New Delhi, Aug 29 (PTI) The Crime Branch of Delhi Police has busted a racket manufacturing counterfeit products with the arrest of six persons, who were engaged in producing fake ENO, toothpaste and cigarettes worth around Rs 30 lakh, officials said on Friday.

Police carried out raids across multiple locations, including Rohini, Bawana and Mazri-Karala, leading to the seizure of a large quantity of duplicate products, packaging material and machinery, they said.

Acting on a tip-off from the representatives of the affected companies, the first raid was conducted on August 6 at two places -- Vijay Vihar Phase-1 in Rohini and Kela Ghat Marg near Kashmiri Gate.

"A substantial stock of counterfeit ENO, Sensodyne toothpaste and Gold Flake cigarettes was seized during the raids. Subsequent raids on August 10 at Mazri-Karala village and on August 11 at Sector-3, Bawana, led to the dismantling of two illegal manufacturing units and seizure of machinery, equipment, and duplicate stock," a police statement said.

The arrested accused have been identified as Onam Jain (28), the main supplier and a resident of Ghaziabad; Surender Bansal, a BCom graduate from Samaypur Badli; Shiva, who operated a unit in Bawana; Manoj Kumar Gupta (42), a buyer of counterfeit goods from Jaipur; Deepak alias Deepu (38), a supplier of fake ENO and Gold Flake cigarettes from Rohini; and Manish Jain (45), a BCom graduate from Kailash Nagar who allegedly purchased fake cigarettes, police said.

The seized counterfeit goods included more than 1.07 lakh ENO stickers, 360 empty cardboard boxes, 1,456 packets and two filling machines, 4,552 toothpaste tubes, 2,200 bottle caps, 120 master packing boxes, and 2,550 cartons of fake Gold Flake cigarettes, the statement said.

During interrogation, Jain confessed to his involvement in the racket since 2022, police said.

Efforts are on to trace the wider supply chain and sources of the counterfeit material, they added. PTI BM SMV ARI