Military Intelligence and Police Seize 488m Forged Army Combat Uniform Berhampur Shop

Berhampur: Around 488 metres of counterfeit Army combat uniform was seized from a textile shop in Odisha’s Berhampur during a joint operation by the city police and Military Intelligence wing. The seized forged textile material is worth around Rs 1,20,000.

A case regarding this seizure has been registered at the Berhampur Town Police Station.

According to police sources, this counterfeit Army Uniform racket came to the fore when one Rambabu Dangi, who works in Army AD College in Gopalpur found counterfeit new digital combat uniform cloth being sold at the shop in Berhampur.

An investigation by the Berhampur police and Military Intelligence revealed that the owner of Ganjam Galaxy Store of Berhampur had procured this counterfeit uniform material from a firm in Kolkata, which got it from Ludhiana. Further investigation is going on to verify the place of manufacturing and the people behind it the illegal business.

The new digital pattern combat uniform was unveiled by the Army on January 15, 2022. The Indian Army has obtained Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for the design and camouflage patterns for a 10-year period, extendable for another five years. This has been done to prevent unauthorized vendors from manufacturing and selling the combat uniform in the open market, as it was posing a serious security threat for the Indian Army.

As per orders, the new uniform has to be sold only in the Army’s unit-run canteens. Due to the IPR, the Army now possesses exclusive rights to the design and can file complaint against any unauthorized sale of this design.