sirah Police have arrested a businessman from Nehal Iron Store located in Golbazar Municipality-4 of Siraha for misusing the name and logo of the famous Marvel brand and selling borewell pipes. According to the police, investigation has been started against nine more people suspected to be involved in the incident.
According to the District Police Office Sirha, based on a special information received at around 1:30 pm on Saturday, a team deployed from the area police office Golbazar searched the Nehal Iron Store run by 45-year-old Muhammad Sabir Khon, a resident of Sirha Municipality-20 Lakdigoth.
According to the police, 632 borewell pipes of 114 mm, 110 mm and 90 mm sizes were seized during the search. According to the police, the name and logo of the Marvel company were used on those pipes. The official representative of the company said that during the preliminary tests, those pipes are not official products of the company.
According to the police, during the preliminary investigation, the owner of the store, Muhammad Sabir Khan, has also admitted that the pipe with the name and logo of the Marvel company was sold. After that, he was taken into custody and further investigation was started according to Siraha District Police Office.
According to Information Officer and Deputy Superintendent of Police Ramesh Bahadur Pal of District Police Office, Siraha, nine more people suspected to be involved in the incident are being investigated. He said that the necessary legal process has been initiated in the case of defrauding consumers and violation of intellectual property rights. Also, he urged the consumers to purchase goods only after confirming the brand, quality and authenticity.
On the other hand, Sudeep Neupane, Marketing Manager of Marvel Techno Plast, alleged that Nehal Iron Store has been misusing the company’s name and branding and selling pipes in the name of its products for about three years.
According to him, during the market monitoring, after the consumers in that area said that they were using Marvel brand pipes, the company compared it with its sales records. He claimed that after it was found that there was no official supply from the company in that area, further investigation was conducted and it was found that pipes using the company’s name and logo were being sold.
According to Neupane, the concerned businessmen were warned verbally not to do such activities even before. But after the same action was found to be repeated again, he said, the process of action was initiated according to the law. He says that the business of products using fake branding will affect the company’s reputation, consumer trust and security.
On the other hand, Nehal Iron Store claimed to have purchased the pipe from Janaki Plastic Company, Janakpur. The police said that further investigation into the incident is ongoing.