Most electronic items you buy may be fakes

Central Crime Branch officials recover duplicate goods worth Rs 14 crore in four raids; list includes food products too

Be careful the next time you step out to buy something in the city as a large number of shops are stacked with fake goods. In the last six months, Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths have conducted four raids and recovered counterfeit goods over Rs 14 crore.


Faking It: Yesterday's raid on Deepam Times in Chikpate resulted in
the seizure of fake watches worth Rs 2.4 crore

Yesterday, CCB officials raided Deepam Times in Chikpate and arrested two people for stocking and selling fake watches worth Rs 2.5 crore. The shopkeepers confessed that they sold the counterfeit watches at the price of the genuine ones and their customers could never tell the difference.

CCB sources said the duplicate goods are imported from China and are then smuggled into the city from Chennai harbour and Mumbai.

Hike in fakes
In the last six months, there has been a 40 per cent increase in the quantity of fake goods that are in circulation in the market. CCB sleuths had recovered duplicate goods worth over Rs 8 crore in the first six months of the year.

A CCB official said that though the bulk of the fake goods are electronic items, fake branded food products have been recovered too. He added that the circulation of fake goods is not only affecting customers but also authorised dealers and wholesale merchants who have seen a drop in revenue of nearly 15 per cent. If the situation continues to stay this way till 2012, he estimated that city dealers will lose about 35 per cent of their revenue to fake goods.

SH Duggappa, ACP, fraud and misappropriation squad, said, "In the four raids that we have conducted so far, we managed to arrest 20 people and recover goods worth over Rs 14 crore." He added that the fakes were so difficult to discern that even dealers got fooled.