Delhi: Gang manufacturing counterfeit engine oil busted, 7 arrested

The police said the owner of the unit, Ghaziabad native Vivek Tyagi (37), was earlier employed as an accountant in an oil company where he had learnt about the duplicate lubricant trade. The other accused were identified as Uttar Pradesh natives Monu Kumar (30), Kamal (20), Gautam (28), Rajesh (21), Anil Kumar (27), and Satyender Kumar (25), all labourers at the unit.

The police said that a team had been constituted in light of the sale of spurious engine oils in the Delhi-NCR region. They said they received a tip-off about a manufacturing unit operating in Khera Khurd village on August 2 and subsequently located the premises. The team then raided the premises to arrest the accused.

Deputy commissioner of police (crime branch) Rajesh Deo said: “The accused Vivek Tyagi had started his own business after earlier working as an accountant. He bought raw oil from a person named Umesh Jain in Mundka, and packaging materials such as bottles and stickers from a man named Pappu, who resides in Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar.”

The police said that 1,180 900-ml bottles of spurious oil under the name of a reputed brand were recovered along with 8,700 40-ml pouches of another brand. Five 200-litre drums of used raw engine oil were also recovered, along with large amounts of empty bottles, packaging materials, stickers, and packaging machines, they said.

The police said a case was filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 420 (cheating) 468 (forgery for cheating) 471 (using forged document as genuine) 482 (using false property mark) 483 (counterfeiting property mark) 486 (selling goods with counterfeit mark) 487 (false mark on goods receptacle) along with Copyright Act Sections 63 (infringement of copyright) and 65 (plates for purpose of making infringing copies).

The police noted that the accused did not have a prior criminal history, and that investigation was underway for further recoveries and to arrest other accused.