6 held for making fake brand handsets

The Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested six fake mobile handset manufacturers and marketers from Dhaka’s Paribagh area on Sunday night, said police.

DB police claimed that although the arrestees are poorly educated, they are skilled in making fake handsets assembling various cheap accessories imported from China. Finally, attaching the logo of various popular brands, they used to market the fake handsets at high prices.

Addressing a press briefing at DMP media centre on Monday, DB’s Additional Commissioner Harun Or Rashid said, “This gang has already sold around 15,000 to 20,000 fake handsets in different areas across the country during the last 5-6 years, fraudulently earning Tk 6 crore and depriving the government of huge amount of revenue.”

He said a team of DB police arrested six persons involved in the illegal trade during a drive at Motaleb Tower beside Motaleb Plaza in Paribagh area on Sunday night.

The arrestees are — Moshiur Rahman, 44, Sagar Hossain, 34, Rahmat Ali, 20, Sujon Ali, 35, Toriqul Islam Babu, 50, and Monir Hossain, 35.

During the raid, 313 fake Nokia brand handsets, 206 fake Samsung brand handsets, huge amount of spare parts and logos of different popular mobile phone brands were recovered, he said.

The DB chief said a section of traders import various low-quality mobile phone accessories including motherboard, display, camera, and casing from China. From the traders, fake mobile phone manufacturers used to buy those parts at wholesale rate, assemble them, and market the handsets with fake IMEI. The logos, stickers and packets of popular brands used for the fake handsets are printed in different local presses, Harun said, adding that such fake handsets get damaged within one or two months.

Md Azmul Hasan, general manager (business operation) of Union Limited told The Business Post that their company is the sole Nokia phone distributor and assembler in Bangladesh. Our company runs maintaining all existing rules.

Not only common people are being cheated buying fake handsets, but the government is also losing due revenue, he said.

Ashif Mohammad Abid, group financial controller of Union Limited, said that they have the capacity to assemble export quality handsets. But, due to the presence of fake handsets in the local market, the foreign buyers hesitate to place purchase orders from us. They are in doubt whether we can actually ensure the quality.