Pune: A racket where bogus and cheap quality electric wires were sold in the name of branded company was busted by Pune city police on Saturday.

Police have arrested a person who owns a shop in Budhwar Peth area of Pune. The accused has been identified as Dineshsingh Roopsingh Rajpurohit (42) of Shukrawar Peth.

According to the police, 15 more shops in the city sold bogus electric wires and their transactions were made via hawala.

The police carried out the operation when recieved a tip-off. The police sent a decoy customer to the accused shop. The customer enquired for electric wires of a branded company. The accused allegedly displayed him bogus electric wires. He further assured that these wires are manufactured by the branded company.

Police arrested the acussed and seized bogus electric wires. The police also raided his godown in the city and recovered bogus electric wires and packaging items with the name of branded company worth Rs 43 lakh.

A press release issued by the police said that an offence in the case is registered at the Faraskhana Police Station. The accused was purchasing the material required for making fake wires, packing it from electrical markets in different states and sold these bogus products to traders in the city. As it was not possible to come up with a GST bill for the bogus electric wires, he was allegedly carrying out the transactions via hawala racket.