Pramesh S jain
The Central Crime Branch’s Economics offence Wing sleuths have arrested two persons and busted a fake hand sanitizer racket by raiding two godowns in the city and seized 8500 bottles of fake hand sanitizer worth Rs.56 lakhs.
Taking advantage of the scarcity of hand sanitizers,declared an essential commodity due to the COVID-19 pandemic The accused identified as Chandan,64,of Chamarajpet,and V Raju of Kasturbangar began to distribute a blue-coloured liquid that was passed off as sanitizer in shops.
When the world is passing through a difficult phase and trying to deal with the deadly Coronavirus,some people are using it as an opportunity to make easy buck by playing with the lives of the people selling fake products are now landed in CCB police net.
The market value of one litre of isopropyl alcohol is anywhere between rs 70 to Rs 100.They were making ten times more money than what they invested.
Bhaskar Rao,Bengaluru city police commissioner told media persons,Based on credible information,team headed by Joint CP Crime,Sandeep Patil,under the supervision of DCPs,as,Kuldeep Kumar R Jain,KP Ravikumar and their team swung into action and raided two godowns of Jyothi Chemicals and Swathi And Company in New Taragupet and Kasturba Nagar on Thursday evening.They found fake sanitizers ready for distribution.
After raiding the godowns where the accused was manufacturing fake hand sanitizer the team took them into custody for further investigation during interrogation the accused confessed the crime.The accused revealed that they mixed 15 to 20 ml of Brilliant Blue Colour with 10 to 15 ml perfume for 50 litres of Isopropyl alcohol.
And With the help of labours,they filled the bottles,pasted the stickers and sold them in market.The duo charged Rs 170 for 100 ml of sanitizer; Rs 325 for 200 ml and Rs 620 for 500 ml bottles.
The accused dint have the licence to manufacture hand sanitizer.A detailed investigation by the team the duo spilled the beans that they have already distributed in the markets in Bengaluru,Ballari and Kalaburagi and they used to charge 10 times more the actual price.
During the raid conducted at the godowns the officials has seized 8500 fake hand sanitizer bottles with stickers and 4500 empty bottles and other materials from their possession.
A case has been registered in Chamarajpet and VV Puram police station limits under Drugs and cosmetics Act and the accused has been remanded to judicial custody and further investigation is on and our team will seize all the fake sanitizer bottles from the medical which are already distributed in the markets.
Finally Bengaluru police commissioner,Bhaskar Rao,has appreciated,Joint CP,Crime,Sandeep Patil,DCPs,as,Kuldeep Kumar R Jain,KP Ravi Kumar and his team for the exemplary work done by them by busting the racket by arresting the duo and saving many innocents life and a stringent action will be taken against those who are misusing this terrible situation to make a quick buck he added.
