Ahead of Diwali, police seize huge cache of counterfeit phones

If you are planning to get a new smartphone this Diwali,make sure you buy it from an authorised dealer and not fall for the 'special' discount the corner shopkeeper may be offering as chances are that you may get a fake.
Delhi police has recently recovered a huge cache of counterfeit Samsung mobile phones and stickers worth Rs 21 lakh from several shops in Karolbagh and Lajpat Rai Market and have arrested four shopkeepers in this case so far.
According to police, the first raid was conducted last Thursday at a shop Hong Kong Plaza in Karol Bagh from where a total of 149 mobile phones and 1,309 stickers of Samsung brand name were recovered. Shop owners Avtar Singh (38) and Diljeet Singh (32) were arrested in this connection.

The second raid was conducted on Saturday at Lajpat Rai Market at shop number 658 and 758 during which 121 mobile phones were recovered. Two shopkeepers, Ramesh Azmani and Manish Gupta have been arrested in this case.
The raids were conducted after officials of Enforcers of Intellectual Property Rights (EIPR) - a company which helps governments, businesses and individuals cope up with white-collar crimes contacted Delhi police following which Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Alok Kumar constituted a team led by ACP J.K Sharma to investigate the matter.
The raids have raised apprehensions that such counterfeit mobiles could be supplied to other parts of the capital as Karol Bagh area is the wholesale market of mobile handsets and related accessories.

What was shocking is that the mobiles recovered looked absolutely like copies of high-end handsets like Samsung S-IV and Galaxy Grand, official said.

During interrogation, those arrested in the case revealed that these were Chinese made handsets which resemble the original mobile phones manufactured by Samsung.
They buy 500 to 1000 units at a time which are then supplied not only to other smaller retailers in Delhi and NCR but also neighbouring states like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
"Most of these fake handsets are manufactured in China. They resemble the real phones accept that they do not have the brand name 'Samsung' on it. Fraudsters paste a sticker or emboss 'Samsung' on these handsets through specialised machines, pack them in identical boxes which are like the company packaging and sell them at huge profits," said EIPR official Kiran Rao.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Alok Kumar said, "we have registered a case under section 63 of the Copyright Act 1954 at Karol Bagh police station and further investigations are on".