Shop owner arrested for selling fake branded garments in Balangir

Balangir: A shop owner was arrested for allegedly selling fake branded garments in Odisha’s Balangir Town on Wednesday. The arrested shop owner has been identified as Rajesh Kumar Lakhani.

Acting on the basis of a complaint lodged against him, the Balangir Town Police today conducted a raid on the wholesale shop, Lakhani New Garment, owned by Rajesh Kumar Lakhani, informed Balangir Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Tofan Bag.

As many as 500 ‘Under Armour’ track pants, 346 ‘Levi’s’ jeans and 410 ‘Calvin Klein’ jeans worth around Rs 43 Lakh were seized during the raid, the SDPO said adding that the shop owner used to bring the clothes from Raipur and sell them after fixing fake stickers on them.

The complaint was filed against Rajesh by one Deepesh Gupta, a representative of the garments company from Mumbai. Gupta came to know about the fake branded garments after a customer informed him about it on Tuesday.

Police arrested Rajesh after registered a case under Sections 420/468/471 (offences of cheating, forgery, and counterfeiting) of IPC and 51 & 63 of Copyright Act, said sources.

Further investigation into the matter is going on, added the sources. Police are also keeping a close eye on other shop owners suspecting their involvement in such illegal activities.