New Delhi: Making a dent in a major counterfeit automobile parts racket operating from Karol Bagh, Delhi Police‘s crime branch seized duplicate auto parts and equipment worth over Rs 50 lakh and arrested 11 individuals. The racket involved the manufacture and sale of cheap, inferior products disguised as original equipment manufacturer parts to unsuspecting customers, police said.Based on a tip-off, a police team conducted simultaneous raids on four premises in Karol Bagh and recovered a large quantity of counterfeit auto parts, including brake pads, filters, spark plugs and clutch plates. Forged packaging, stickers, holograms and printing machines were also seized. Around 200 bottles of counterfeit branded engine oils were also found in their possession.The gang’s modus operandi involved procuring low-quality counterfeit auto parts from local and regional manufacturers at a fraction of the cost of genuine parts. “They would then rebrand the fake products to resemble those of reputed automobile companies using forged labels, holograms, logos and packaging materials. The counterfeit products were sold to local auto part dealers, wholesalers and repair shops in and around Delhi at slightly discounted prices, maximising profit margins,” said Aditya Gautam, DCP (crime).The accused individuals operated this racket for several years, with some of them having previous cases registered against them for intellectual property rights violation and forgery. Dheeraj Singh, the kingpin of the operation, was found to be a commerce graduate with experience in supply chain and inventory control. He engaged in this trade for the last four years and built a network of suppliers and distributors. Besides Dheeraj, the other arrested men were Amit Singh, Dipankar Nagpal, Harsh Kumar, Rinku, Ravinder, Raghvender Singh, Sachin Singh, Vinod Ahuja, Ashish Malhotra and Alok Pruthi.