Mumbai, March 31 (MD): Three shopkeepers from Kurla were arrested on Saturday for selling ‘fake’ Samsung smartphones to customers. Officials from Nehru Nagar police station, who arrested the three, said these men would stick the Samsung logo on cheap, China-made handsets and would sell them as branded smartphones.

The accused were identified as Jitendra Kumar Mauriya (22), Ali Mohammad Qureshi (22) and Mohammad Mustaq Ayub Sardar (26). The trio had rented shops near Kurla station named Maharashtra Traders, Nayab, and Noor, respectively. Police officials recovered over 50 fake Samsung handsets worth Rs 2.04 lakh from the three shops.

Sub-inspector Rahul Lokhande from Nehru Nagar police station said, “The three have been duping people for a year now. They would target gullible buyers who thought they were buying Samsung handsets at cheaper rates. All three are residents of Kurla.”

Service staff calls bluff
The con came to the fore after one of their customers went to a Samsung service centre to get his phone repaired. He was informed there that the handset he owned was a fake.

The mobile owner revealed the details about the shop he had purchased the handset from. Based on his revelation, Samsung officials approached the police. Lokhande said, “The company officials visited the police station at 12.30 pm on Saturday.

A case was registered under sections 51 (copyright infringed) and 63 (offence of infringement of copyright or other rights conferred by this act) of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957. A team was dispatched immediately and the trio was arrested. ”