Fake hallmark raid: BIS seals jeweller, seizes 690g gold

Davanagere: The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Hubli branch office, conducted a search and seizure operation on June 9 at M/s Panduranga Bommayya Vernekar Jewellers on Vijayalakshmi Road in Davanagere for the alleged sale of fake hallmarked gold jewellery.In a press release, PN Murali, scientist-E/director and head, stated that the enforcement action was initiated following credible inputs regarding the sale of gold jewellery bearing spurious BIS hallmark. Acting on this information, he constituted a BIS enforcement team comprising Mohit Janoiya, scientist/joint director, Tushar Sharma, scientist-D/joint director, and Ajay Chakrawarti, scientist-B/assistant director, to carry out the search and seizure at the premises.During the raid, more than 100 gold ornaments weighing 690 grams, including stones and tags, bearing fake BIS hallmark on 22-carat and 20-carat jewellery were seized. The seized items were also found to carry fake mandatory BIS Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) markings, violating provisions of the BIS Act, 2016, and the BIS (Hallmarking) Regulations, 2018. Consumers have been advised to verify the authenticity of hallmarked gold jewellery through the “BIS CARE” app before making purchases and to report suspicious or non-compliant products to BIS, he said.The raid was part of BIS’s regular enforcement drive against misuse of the BIS Standard Mark, including hallmark violations, and breaches of BIS (Hallmarking) Regulations, he added.