Nagpur: In one of the biggest crackdowns on counterfeit consumer goods in recent times, officers of Mumbai-based Midas Hygiene Industries Pvt Ltd, backed by Wathoda police, stormed three manufacturing and packaging hubs in Nagpur on Wednesday and seized fake goods worth nearly Rs 10 crore.
The seized stock included a massive cache of counterfeit ‘Laxmanrekhaa’ insecticide chalk, the flagship product of Midas, along with brazen imitations of top-selling household brands like ‘Eno’ antacid powder, Goodknight, All Out, Zandu Balm, Dant Kanti toothpaste, Harpic, CloseUp, and Sensodyne.
Gold Rate
24 Sept 2025
The raids began around 11 am in a coordinated strike across three hotspots: A factory and packaging unit at Sangharsh Nagar, Bhandewadi, the Neetya Packaging and Hindustan Marketing Unit in Jaripatka, and a manufacturing base in Umergaon on Umred Road. Acting swiftly on a tip-off, police also searched the Jaripatka residence of the kingpin, Deepak Kanhaiyalal Talreja (52). However, Talreja, a notorious repeat offender in the counterfeit trade since 2021, slipped away before the raiding teams closed in.
The operation was the fallout of a corporate probe after Midas recorded a sudden slump in sales of its iconic ‘Laxmanrekhaa’ product over the last six months. A parallel rise of duplicate goods in the market confirmed suspicions. Alone, counterfeit ‘Laxmanrekhaa’ chalk worth Rs 1.5 crore was seized in the action.
Police said Talreja has a long history of replicating and circulating fake FMCG products across state lines, with earlier arrests in Wadi, Jabalpur, and Raipur. During Wednesday’s raids, the Umergaon unit manager, Sachin Deshmukh, was taken into custody, while Hemant Indrasen Pakhrani, who handled operations at the Jaripatka unit, also managed to flee.
The crackdown was executed under a Bombay High Court order and under the direct supervision of Midas Chairman Pranay Kapoor. The special action squad comprised company officials Virendra Rathod, Ganesh Sharma, Sunil Nair, Benjamin Joseph, Deepak Lad, Rohit Jangam, Om Zharkad, Vaibhav Lohkar, and Vinayak Lokhande, along with legal experts Rahul Pujari, Nidhi Bangera, Karishma Sawant, and Rahul Mishra.
Police have launched a manhunt for Talreja and Pakhrani, while warning that the counterfeit racket had not only defrauded companies of crores but also posed serious health risks to unsuspecting consumers.
