AHMEDABAD, JAN 1
Eureka Forbes Limited and Odhav police jointly busted a fake spare parts manufacturing plant at Odhav in Ahmedabad and arrested its owner here on Tuesday night and an FIR has been filed against him for violation of copyrights and IPR, a company release said.
The team seized huge stock of 4,000 units of fake parts posing worth Rs 15.30 lakh as ‘genuine’ Aquaguard cartridges in Odhav.
Shashank Sinha, Chief Transformation Officer, Eureka Forbes Limited, said, “’Unauthorised service networks pose a huge threat to consumers. Lured by lower prices, consumers often end up buying fake or assembled products.”
According to Sinha, the manufacturers of substandard cartridges have duplicated most of the visual features of Eureka Forbes’ products such as the blue and white colour scheme and font style to fool customers into believing that they are purchasing a genuine Aquaguard cartridge as supplied by the company. The manufacturers have violated copyrights of EFL by using the Eureka Forbes and Aquaguard brand names along with the star emblem and photo of the mother and child. The substandard spare parts mention the name and address of Eureka Forbes as manufacturers of material with the contact number and email id of Eureka Forbes to contact in case of any complaints.
An FIR has been filed at the Odhav Police Station in Ahmedabad against Abhishek alias Manjeet Khushwah, the owner of the factory for cheating, forgery and violation of copyright etc. He was also arrested by the Odhav police last night. Over 4000 units of Aquaguard and Aqua Filter were confiscated from the godown on Tuesday night.
He added, “Similar cases in point being FIR’s against Pournima Industries, Mumbai and Aqua Care in Bangalore for misleading our customers by letting them believe that they were getting into a contract with Eureka Forbes. These institutes and many others like them were engaged in manufacturing spurious spares and consumables that would put the health of consumers at risk. We strongly condemn such acts and have taken precautionary steps to protect our consumers by introducing ‘Health Protect’, which is a safeguard that has been built into our Aquaguard purifiers. This advanced feature not only gives consumers advance intimation on periodic maintenance/replacement and usable life of filter cartridges but also ensures that no other grey market parts could be retrofitted into the unit. Not just this, we have a consumer helpline where a customer could call and find the authenticity of a personnel from Eureka Forbes.”
