Berhampur: Acting on credible inputs from the Military Intelligence Unit at Gopalpur, Berhampur police conducted a raid Monday at ‘Ganjam Galaxy Store’ situated near Old Bus Stand under Town police limits here and seized counterfeit Army combat uniform material being sold illegally. A criminal case (No-57/24) has been registered in this connection at the Town police station and police are investigating the matter.
As per official sources, one R Dangi, an officer in Army Air Defence College in Gopalpur, during his visit to Berhampur noticed that counterfeit cloth resembling new digital pattern combat uniform of the Indian Army was being sold at the shop and informed the matter to the authorities. During a joint raid by the Military Intelligence and Berhampur police, a total of 488 meter combat uniform material worth Rs 1,20,000 has been seized.
During the investigation, it was found that the owner of Ganjam Galaxy Store had procured this uniform material from a Kolkata trader, who earlier had procured it from Ludhiana. Further investigation is going on to verify the place of manufacturing and the people involved in the illegal business. The new digital pattern combat uniform was unveiled by the Army January 15, 2022 as a replacement for the old fatigues, which is in process. The Army has obtained Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for the design and camouflage patterns for 10 years, extendable for another five years. This has been done to prevent unauthorised vendors from manufacturing and selling the combat fatigue in the open market, as it was posing a serious security threat to the Indian Army. As per orders, the new fatigues have to be sold only in the Army’s unit-run canteens. Due to the IPR, the Army now possesses exclusive rights to the design and can file a complaint against unauthorised sale of this design.
