Delhi Police arrests two more in counterfeit footwear racket

The Delhi Police has arrested two more persons, including a technical support provider and an assembling unit operator, in a continued crackdown on a counterfeit shoes racket, officials said on Monday.

The accused, identified as Idu Ansari alias Raju (30) and Pintu (40), were arrested in separate operations, they said.

The arrests comes days after police unearthed a manufacturing unit in in northeast Delhi’s Sonia Vihar on January 28. The unit was allegedly producing duplicate shoes of international brands.

Its owner, Sandeep Singh (44), was arrested earlier and police seized heavy machinery and materials from the site.

During the investigation into the case registered under sections related to cheating, forgery and the Copyright Act, police teams conducted raids across various locations in the city based on information provided by Singh.

The accused, Ansari, was arrested from Nangloi. Police said Ansari is a graphic designer who allegedly designed and manufactured counterfeit dies used for printing brand names and logos on the fake footwear. He then supplied them to the main accused.

Police seized a computer system containing digital sketches of counterfeit dies, two industrial machines and two pen drives with digital data at his instance.

In another operation, police busted an assembling unit operating in east Delhi’s Mandoli Extension and arrested its owner, Pintu. A resident of Sunder Nagari, Pintu was allegedly involved in assembling and finishing the counterfeit shoes.

Police seized a large quantity of shoes, soles, uppers and stickers bearing brand markings from the unit. Equipment including a pasting machine, compressor and heater machines were also seized.

While Ansari provided the technical design support, Pintu managed the assembly setup, they added.