Bhubaneswar: Four electronics showroom owners held for selling duplicate TVs

Bhubaneswar: The Twin City Commissionerate Police today arrested owners of four electronics showrooms in the city for allegedly selling duplicate LED TVs of SONY brand.

Acting on a tip-off about the offence, a police ream raided the four showrooms and seized as many as 120 such TVs of different sizes.

The accused have been identified as T Pravakar Rao, owner of Khusi Electronics, Netaji Market, Laxmisagar, Siba Prasad Sahu, owner of Sai Electronics, Tankapani Road, Badagada, Manas Jena, owner of Ganapati Electronics, Kargil Basti, Airport area, and Shamin Khan, owner of Unitech Electronics, IDCO Colony, Mancheswar.

They used to target lower income group by saying the buyers that the TVs were procured from Paradip Port at 50% less than the original amount due to non-payment of customs duty and GST of the ‘imported’ devices, police sources said.

In the case of malfunctioning, the accused used to return the money to the customers or replace the damaged TV with a new one, sources added.

T Pravakar Rao was the mastermind behind the crime as he used to buy duplicate SONY TVs from Kolkata. He sold the devices in the market through his associates.

Police have registered four cases in this connection and forwarded the accused to court.