SURAT: The Surat district and sessions court on Tuesday refused to grant anticipatory bail to businessman Mukesh Mayani (44) who along with others is accused of selling duplicate products of well-known FMCG brands. Mayani and his friend Brijesh Patel were booked by Kamrej police on December 21, 2020 for cheating and violation of Copyright Act and Trade Mark Act.
According to case details, Mayani and co-accused Patel, stored duplicate goods with the brand name of multi-national companies in the house of one Ramesh Movali. They sold the products claiming it to be of the original brand.
When one of the multi-national firms Hindustan Lever Ltd came to know of the this alleged cheating, it lodged a case against Mayani and his aides.
Public prosecutor D V Dave opposed the anticipatory bail plea of the accused’s on the grounds that duplicate products worth Rs 30 lakh was seized from him. He added that Mayani’s custodial interrogation was needed to know who all were involved in this racket of selling duplicate products as the original one.
The court observed that there was prima facie evidence against the accused and since he and other co-accused were on the run, anticipatory bail can’t be granted.