Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Bengaluru Police have had their hands full not only with enforcing the lockdown but also cracking down on fake products in the market.
In the last seven days, copys in the city have seized around 12,000 fake masks, 8,500 bottles of fake hand sanitisers and 70 fake infrared thermometers.
According to officers of the Central Crime Branch (CCB), who have been conducting several raids over the past week, production of these fake equipment started soon after the coronavirus scare kicked in, and once the panic shopping started, these products made their way into the market.
Fake Thermometers
In the latest raid, the CCB cracked down on a store in Bengaluru’s Rajajinagar selling fake infrared thermometers on 30 March. According to the sleuths who raided Prajval Surgical and Scientific store, the fake products made its way to the city from Chennai.
The CCB team was able to recover 70 fake infrared forehead thermometers worth around Rs 8 lakh as per the price they charged customers.
The infrared thermometers are high demand since several companies, especially restaurants serving through aggregators, are using these thermometers as precautionary measure. Last week, police received information about this fake product and one of the officers went to the store as a decoy, said a CCB officer.
Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) told The Quint that the owner of the store is still at large.
"First of all, these equipment had no markings on them, which should have raised suspicion. Also, when we tested this equipment, it showed the same temperature on the human body and a wooden table. They were selling these fake products for Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000.”
Fake Hand Sanitizers
A day before the raid on the pharmacy selling fake thermometer, cops had raided two godowns in the city and arrested two men for manufacturing fake hand sanitizers and hand rubs.
In these coordinated raids 8,500 bottles of hand sanitisers worth Rs 56 lakh were recovered by The Economic Offences Wing of the CCB.
Officials said that the health department informed them about the numerous complaints received by on a helpline number about fake sanitizers. An investigation into the tip-off led the teams to the godowns of Jyoti Chemcials in New Taragupet and Swati and Company in Kasturbanagar.
Sandeep Patil said that these companies made a cocktail of cheap perfume, blue colouring agent and isopropyl alcohol in small quantities.
“We recovered 280 litres of isopropyl alcohol, and blue colouring agent. The market value of one litre of isopropyl alcohol is anywhere between Rs 70 to Rs 100 and they were selling 100ml of their fake product for Rs 170”Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner CCB
Fake N95 Masks
Police had also seized 12,000 fake N95 masks from Bengaluru city in multiple raids earlier this week. CCB officers said that those arrested had used produced fake masks using cloths material from factories in Tamil Nadu.
“We are not sure if the pharmacies were aware of they were receiving fake products. This is being investigated now. We are also pursuing leads we have got from the arrested men to find if there are more fake masks in the market,” said Patil.
So far the police department has not issued any guidelines to pharmacies, however, they have been advised to be on the lookout for fake products, added a senior police officer.
Reports of similar rackets selling fake masks and sanitizers were reported in other parts of the country as well. On 15 March, four people were arrested in Noida for producing fake masks. Similar raids were conducted in Gurgaon and Mumbai as well.
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