Ritchie Street stunned with series of raids

Ritchie Street at Chennai, considered to be South India's biggest IT market, witnessed a series of raids by the Directorate of
Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Enforcers of Intellectual Property Rights (EIPR) along with CID.
According to a section of the market, Intel and HP mainly instigated these raids.

Last Wednesday, officials from DRI raided some shops in a famous plaza at Ritchie Street to check gray products. The
following day, a team from EIPR along with CID, conducted more raids at many IT shops in the same plaza
looking for counterfeit products, mainly cartridges and processors. 

In both cases, the concerned authorities reportedly seized some materials from these shops alleging fake products. Few
resellers were also taken into custody. However, officials were unable to prove that these products were
actually counterfeits, giving rise to questions amongst the reseller community.

"We are sure that they cannot prove us guilty. This is a planned act by vendors in association with these agencies to create a
sense of fear among  resellers. Vendors will have to pay the price for their acts," says a
leading reseller and a close associate of an affected vendor. 

Meanwhile, the local IT association - ITTA -- has got into action swiftly and is taking all efforts to solve this issue. "We are
working on the issue and hope to resolve it amicably," says an office bearer of the association.
Meanwhile, resellers are stressing the need for strengthening the trade association to counter such problems in future. "If the association is
strong, we are sure that no one can touch us. The vendors would have approached the association if they really found someone guilty and the
association would also have warned the concerned reseller and taken some action," says a reseller operating from the same market. 

The present raids have sent shock waves among resellers creating panic amongst them. They are also agitated with the manner
in which the raids were conducted. "We are thoroughly upset with the way officials behaved while
conducting the raids," said a visibly-shaken reseller. According to market information, a top official from EIPR had manhandled a person in one of the
IT shops where the raids were conducted. 

DRI officials which raided Acme Computers for dealing in gray products, is said to have seized some 100 processors, which
were identified as re-packed and re-marked. In another raid, EIPR along with CID had seized some HP
inkjet cartridges and Intel processors (P4 1.5 GHz, 1.7 GHz and 2.4 GHz), all worth close to Rs 5 lakh. Resellers who were taken into custody
are from Anand Infosys, SB Infotech, Ramdev Infotech, Navkar Computers, JK Infotech
and Venus Computers. 

Commenting on these raids, Edward Rodrick, Director (Operations), EIPR -- a
Mumbai-based private detective wing -- which initiated the raid, says, "We have taken out raids only after thorough investigation and we have all proof
that they are counterfeit products. In fact, we filed a police case (FIR) only after proving it to be fake products from the concerned vendors, HP and
Intel. Even re-packed and re-marked products will come under offense for trying to cheat the customers. Now, the case has gone legal and all the
resellers who are in the custody will be presented before the concerned magistrate for further action." 

When contacted, HP and Intel officials declined to comment on the issue saying their APAC region anti-fraud cell had carried it out. 

(CNS)