These facts were came to light Saturday when Nepal Police raided a godown operated by the firm at Surkhet Road, Nepalgunj-13. The police conducted the raid based on a tip-off.[break]
“We caught 7 children and also the proprietor of the firm Samasuddin Rain red-handed while packaging the smuggled supply in a sack bearing the logo of a Nepali brand,” said Bikram Singh Thapa, chief of Banke District Police Office.
He informed Republica that the children hail from bordering villages and the police have confiscated 10 tons of sugar and more than 50 sacks of rice smuggled from India.
Rain is a resident of Jayaspur, a bordering village, and the sacks in which he repackaged the smuggled sugar for local market bore the logo of Indu Shankar Sugar Mill. The sugar industry is based in Hariwan of Sarlahi district.
“Rain has been found counterfeiting the brand of Indu Shankar Sugar Mill to run his illicit business,” said Thapa.
Rain, however, said he used the sacks of Indu Shankar Sugar Mill because they were cheaper than sacks of other brands. “Its sacks are easily found in the market at Rs 17 per piece, which is cheaper than other sacks,” he stated, denying any intention of counterfeiting the brand. He admitted to have been supplying smuggled sugar for the last four months.
Prevailing laws bar traders and industrialists from counterfeiting trade marks. “It is a serious crime because it robs others´ intellectual property rights,” said Ram Chandra Bhatta, a customs official.
Thapa said the police will file a case against Rain as per the Black Marketeering Act.
In his statement, Rain admitted he has been using the children of bordering villages to ferry goods from across the border. “Each child transports up to 7 kg of sugar a day on bicycles and I pay them Rs 5 per kg on delivery to the godown,” he said.
Bishnu Gupta, a 12 years boy from Paraspur village nabbed by the police with the contraband, said he has been transporting sugar twice a day - once each in the morning and the evening. “We carry goods across the border regularly,” he stated.
Customs officials Bhatta said use of children in cross-border smuggling is not new. “This has been going on for years. Still, we are not able to control it,” he stated.
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