A bulldozer operation was recently conducted in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat after the District Magistrate came across the counterfeit water bottles being sold under the similar name of ‘Bisleri’, the most trusted brand of mineral water in the country. DM Jitendra Pratap Singh was recently served a ‘Bilseri’ bottle instead of a Bisleri packaged drinking water bottle during his visit to the border police post-Niwada after Tehsil Sampoorna Diwas. This led to a stir in the Food Department in the district as the DM called upon the team of the Food Safety and Drug Administration(FSDA) to check the purity of the water.
The incident happened when DM Jitendra Pratap Singh and SP Arpit Vijayvargiya visited Niwada police station. Singh was shocked to learn that the water bottle had no license mark and was sold under the fake name of ‘Bisleri’. "The sale of counterfeit goods not only deceives customers but also jeopardises their health. Strict measures will be taken to eradicate such practices from the market," Singh was quoted as saying. Following his order, Assistant Foor Safety Commissioner Manvendra Singh and the FSDA team raided shops and warehouses selling water bottles with similar names of 'Bisleri'. The officials confiscated a large number of fake water bottles, reportedly 2,663 bottles mimicking the original Bisleri packaging to mislead consumers. They took all the fake water bottles to an empty place and destroyed them with the bulldozer. The video of the same has also surfaced online in which the DM could be seen asking officials to take strict against the fake water bottles.
The investigation led officials to bust a fake Bisleri racket across Baghpat. As per reports, the fake Bisleri water bottles were made in-house without the license in Baghpat’s Gauripur Jawahar Nagar village. Legal action was taken against the shop owner Bhim Singh, running an illegal warehouse and distributing fake water bottles across the district. Samples were sent to check the purity of water, post bulldozer operation of the counterfeit water bottles. Further, DM has also directed the FSDA team to carry on
thorough inspection of all shops selling counterfeit water bottles in the district.
