Hyderabad: Beware of spurious tea in market

Hyderabad: If you are thinking that you are drinking original tea purchased from a nearby kirana store, then you may be mistaken as the growing number of spurious tea powder sales in the city is rising. One such case came to light when the police nabbed an offender for selling a local brand of tea powder by packing it in branded Red Label packets in Mangalhat area on Tuesday. The accused was identified as Narender Chowdhary.

According to the police, they received a complaint from a representative of the Hindustan Unilever company about the fraud which was happening. "Upon receiving the complaint, our teams raided the spot and apprehended the person while seizing the entire fake produce. When the accused was questioned he revealed that he was in the tea business for many years.

But since lockdown he was unable to make his ends meet, so he decided to sell it by using dubious means," informed the police.

Another officer from the task force on condition of anonymity said, "Since lockdown many traders who have lost their business are entering into the illegal sale of such FMCG goods unaware of the fact that they are risking the lives of innocent citizens.

In order to gain money, such persons have hatched a conspiracy to sell the local tea by using the branded packets of Red Label and Taj Mahal. In fact, they are also taking the help of photoshop experts to replicate the exact print of these products. If we look at these duplicate products with a naked eye they look like the original, but they are not and it can be differentiated by placing the original and duplicate products side by side."

"Moreover it is not only tea, but there are other products such as hair oils, shampoos, Vicks Vaporub, Amrutanjan, Soaps etc…. which are duplicate but are sold in lookalike packets of real products and all such duplicate products are only sold at small time kirana stores.

Though we have raided many such places, still there are persons who are involved in the crime. Hence, it is always urged to citizens that if they are purchasing any FMCG goods or products used for daily use, they should cross check it properly and if in doubt, they can complain at the local PS about the issue," explained the officer.