CUTTACK: In a glaring evidence of Cuttack City turning into a hub of duplication and brand piracy, police and sleuths of Enforcers of Intellectual Property Rights (EIPR) have busted a lubricant adulteration unit while blowing the lid off a duplicate watch assembly unit. Three persons have been booked.The raids, conducted by the Commissionerate Police on the basis of the information provided by EIPR team, that is camping in the City, have unearthed an exhaustive automobile lubricant adulteration unit running from a rented house in Pithapur. At least 500 litres of adulterated lubricant along with huge quantity of stickers, logos and seal caps of reputed brands like Castrol, Elf and Servo were seized from the unit, police said.According to police, the illicit activity came to light when a raid was conducted on Mahavir Auto Store near Samrat Cinema Hall under Madhupatna Police limits leading to seizure of at least 40 cans of duplicate Castrol Active40 lubricants. The owner Sambit Mishra then led police to supplier Pratap Mohapatra who was running his lubricant business from a small shop at Puri Bus Stand here.Mohapatra, who hails from Gania in Nayagarh, was then found to run the adulteration unit from a rented house at Pithapur. Apart from stickers, cans and containers, about four drums of used lubricant were also seized from the house. Mohapatra allegedly mixed lubricants with used oil to rake in the mullah.The total materials have been valued at about ` 5 lakh. The adulterated lubricants were supplied to shops in the City and even to neighbouring districts, police said. Continuing with the raids, police also unearthed a watch assembly unit duplicating products of the top brands like Titan and Sonata. Raids on a shop at Parbati Market under Badambadi Police limits yielded about 250 such watches along with substantial quantity of duplicate batteries.The manufacturer, Jaswant Singh, allegedly used to procure cheap Chinese watch equipment along with duplicate dials and cases of Titan and Sonata brands from outside. He used to assemble the watches here and sell them to unscrupulous watch vendors in the City.In another incident, about 225 duplicate regulators of fan brand Usha have also been seized from one Sangeeta Electronics at Haripur.Cases have been filed in Madhupatna, Badambadi and Purighat police stations.
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