Fake Cotton Seed Racket Busted; Rs 30 Lakh Worth Duplicate Items Seized
Investigations revealed that the pouch designs were prepared by Srinu and printed at a private printing facility in Bahadurpally, Medchal district.
HYDERABAD: In a major crackdown on the illegal seed trade, the Malkajgiri special operations team-II along with Trimulgherry police busted a racket involved in manufacturing and marketing suspected spurious cotton seeds using duplicate branded packaging. Police arrested three persons and seized fake seed pouches, suspected spurious cotton seeds and other material collectively worth Rs 30 lakh.
Malkajgiri police commissioner B. Sumathi said the case came to light after Solanke Yashwanth Rao, Telangana marketing manager of Gujarat-based Narmada Sagar Agri Seeds Pvt Ltd, lodged a complaint alleging that duplicate cotton seed pouches resembling the company’s original brand were being illegally printed for sale of unverified cotton seeds.
She said the police teams intercepted a vehicle at the Bowenpally vegetable market yard within Trimulgherry police limits and upon inspecting it found three persons — Yeruva Balashow Reddy alias Shiva Reddy, Kaparthi Benjamin and ‘Donga’ Srinu — transporting 12,800 duplicate cotton seed pouches allegedly designed to imitate Narmada Sagar Agri Seeds products.
Police alleged that Balashow Reddy, managing director of New Rythu Sampada Seeds company, had conspired with his associates, the co-accused, to prepare counterfeit seed pouches.
Investigations revealed that the pouch designs were prepared by Srinu and printed at a private printing facility in Bahadurpally, Medchal district. The accused allegedly procured nearly 2,000 kilograms of suspected spurious cotton seeds from farmers and stored them at an office in Bandlaguda for packaging under the fake brand name.