Balasore: Police in Odisha’s Balasore district have busted a gang involved in manufacturing fake tea and misusing the name of a major brand in the country after raiding a factory. The factory was running in Agrawal Chowk near National Highway 60 in Jaleshwar Police Station area. After many complaints, the Delhi High Court ordered strict action against this racket. After this, a special team and the local police raided this fake tea packing factory.
What is the whole matter?
During the raid, the police found fake tea being sold in packaging bearing the names and logos of many well-known companies. Investigation revealed that cheap tea was bought from the local market and packaged and sold under big brand names. The shocking thing was that the factory was running in a rented house in the name of an auto parts shop. A signboard was also installed outside so that no one gets suspicious. But packing of fake tea was going on on a large scale inside.
Police seized a tea packing machine, polythene bags printed with logos of several big brands and other packing items from the spot. The police investigation also revealed that this factory was doing this illegal business for the last 2-3 years.
The statement of Nishan Mattu, the local commissioner appointed by the Delhi High Court, has come out after the raid.
Delhi High Court-appointed local commissioner Nishan Mattoo said after the raid, ‘We have found packaged products like Tata Tea Gold and Tata Tea Premium here, which are being investigated. We have gathered all the products in one place and will list them now. After this I will make a report, in which the owner of the factory will also be heard and his signatures will be taken. The report will then be handed over to the Delhi High Court.
He further said, ‘These people were not using the Tata Tea name, but were selling fake tea using its same packing, print, color and font. He was appointed on November 25 under the order of the Delhi High Court to investigate the case. However, they do not have exact information about how long this factory was running. The owners of the factory claimed that they started its construction in January 2024 and closed it in September 2024, but they have no valid documents to prove this claim. I asked them for invoices and details of accounts, but they were unable to produce any documents.
What did factory owner Ramchandra Bhuiyan say?
Factory owner Ramchandra Bhuiya claimed that the companies only objected to words like ‘gold’ and ‘premium’ written on their packets. “We started selling tea last 2-3 years and companies objected to the use of these words,” he said.
The police are now probing the matter thoroughly and looking for the rest of the people involved in making and selling the fake tea. (Reporting by Shubham Kumar from Odisha)
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