Replica of popular watches worth Rs 1 cr seized

Officers from the Elephant Gate crime branch arrested the owner of Jaigurudev Times, Jawa Ram (47), at Ramanujam complex in Kasi Chetty lane. While prices of original watches range from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh, Ram sold the replicas of the same brands to customers at prices ranging from Rs 4,000 to Rs 11,000. 

Sources said that City Police Commissioner AK Viswanathan received specific inputs about the counterfeit goods and alerted Additional Commissioner (North) H M Jayaram. As per his instructions, a special team was formed under Elephant Gate crime inspector Julius Ceaser. 

The team raided the shop on Friday evening and seized 5,000 replicas. “They were imported from China and even had fake boxes with warranty letters,” said an official. While Ram and three of his employees have been remanded, the case has been handed over to Video Piracy Cell of CB-CID which handles copyright violation and trademark related cases. Other shops in the locality too might be raided soon, the official said. 

Meanwhile, a city-based watch enthusiast told DT Next that while trading in replica of branded watches is legal in countries like Malaysia, it is prohibited in India under the Copyrights Act. “There are three ranges of duplicate watches - triple to single A. While AAA watches look identical to the original and can be bought for one tenth the price, AA and single A watches are sub-standard and much cheaper,” he said.