Kendrapara: Sadar Police busted a fake tea and hair oil manufacturing unit at Khardasahi in Chandol area Monday. The police seized a huge quantity of adulterated tea, hair oil and pain balm along with labels, wrappers, plastic bottles, punching machines and other raw materials from a house.
The police also arrested a man for his alleged involvement in making the duplicate products, said IIC Maheswar Sethy.
SP Niti Sekhar said IPL Investigating and Security Agency’s executive, Prabir Bhadhar, had reported that duplicate tea brands and hair oil were being manufactured at Chandol, and were being sold in Kendrapara.
The SP said a joint raid was conducted by IPL officials and police at the godown of Chitta Ranjan Patri, the owner of the fake products manufacturing unit in Khardasahi.
The team found 482 pieces of duplicate Nihar oil (100 ml), 822 containers of Tata Tea (100 grams), 963 containers of duplicate Dabur Amla hair oil (100 ml) and 380 bottles of Pamjin pain balm in the godown.
A huge quantity of plastic bottles, labels, wrappers and a punching machine for packing and sealing were also seized from the godown.
The police and IPL officials later compared the seized products with original ones, and found that they were adulterated.
The police arrested Rakesh Das, a resident of Khardasahi, who was working as salesman for selling the duplicate products. But the police could not arrest the owner of the fake manufacturing unit as he was absconding.
The police registered a case under Sections 272, 273, 420 and 418 of IPC, Sections 63 and 65 of the Copyrights Act as per the FIR lodged by Prabir.
A hunt is on to nab the owner of the manufacturing unit, the SP said.
Preliminary investigations indicated that the unit had been functioning in the locality for a year, said IIC Maheswar.
IANS
