Recover all loss & damages NCERT suffered due to pirated books from the accused, says panel

MEERUT: A four-member NCERT committee formed to look into the recent seizure of 10lakh fake textbooks has in its report suggested that all the damages and loss suffered by the autonomous government organization due to the publishing of the

counterfeit books

should be recovered from the people accused of printing them.

“NCERT may request the police to share the list of culprits who are indulged in printing and book selling activities (pirated) to initiate relevant civil proceedings before the court of law seeking damages and compensation for the huge loss suffered by NCERT,” the panel said in the conclusion of the report.

Meanwhile, a court in Meerut on Monday issued a non-bailable warrant against the owner of a printing press, where the pirated NCERT books worth over Rs 35crore were recovered 10 days ago, his nephew and two others. Former BJP functionary Sanjeev Gupta, his nephew Sachin Gupta and their two aides are missing since August 21 when the

huge consignment

of books was unearthed. Sanjay is the kingpin of the racket, police have said. A similar consignment was seized in Amroha.

“We have been trying to locate their location, but they are evading arrest. Court has now issued a warrant against the absconding suspects,”

Meerut SP

(City) Akhilesh Narayan Singh confirmed.

While the NCERT panel, in its report (a copy of which is with TOI), has confirmed that the books with the agency’s watermark seized from the warehouse in Meerut and Amroha don’t conform to the standard parameters.

The team which inspected the warehouse in Meerut’s Partapur area found to its shock that the illegal publisher was doling out up to 50% commission to the book sellers. In contrast, the NCERT authorized vendors give a maximum of 20% commission to the shopkeepers, making them less lucrative.

The team, on request of UP police, visited sealed warehouses in Meerut’s Partapur area and Gajraula in Amroha.

The team made several observations in its report. “It seems that paper was procured illegally because NCERT uses 80 GSM papers whereas this paper was 60/64 GSM. Moreover, below the NCERT logo on the NCERT watermark, name of the manufacturing firm and year of manufacture was not available,” an excerpt in the report read.