Mumbai: The city crime branch seized 5,281 duplicate watches of international brands commonly know as ‘first copy’ from a godown in Pydhonie.
The watches are worth over Rs1 crore, said an officer. During the raid, the crime branch officials arrested the godown owner, Vikas Kantilal Jain (38), a resident of Kamathipura.
Last week, the crime branch unit 3, raided a watch factory from Masjid Bandar area and seized over 4,000 watches worth Rs21 lakh. Three accused arrested in the raid have been identified as Afzal Arif Ansari (40), Vijay Surywanshi (38) and Santosh Amrute (42).
During the interrogation, the crime branch officials learnt that the main accused, Ansari supplied duplicate watches to Jain, a bulk supplier of such watches, after which the crime branch raided Jain’s godown on Tuesday night.
According to the crime branch, Jain imports duplicate watches from China in bulk. Then, the watches are distributed to retailers countrywide. He also sells them over an online platform as well.
All the accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 34 (common intention) and under the relevant sections of the Copyright Act. On Wednesday, all the four accused were produced in a court, which sent them to police custody till Friday.
