CCB busts gold testing and certification racket

Hallmark in a gold ornament guarantees purity and fineness of gold; it's a form of consumer protection 

Post By : IJ News Service On 12 August 2019 3:02 PM

If you thought the hallmark logo affixed on the gold ornament that your purchased is the ultimate proof of purity, you could be wrong. Reason: The logos could be faked. This came to the fore on Friday when a gold testing and certification racket was busted by Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths following a raid on a hallmarking unit at Nagarathpet in the city’s retail hub.

Sudarshan Jain, 28, owner of RTN Testing and Hallmarking Centre located in Rajarajeshwari Market on Kempanna Lane, has been booked for violating the provisions of Bureau of Indian Standards Act 2016. The raid is a pointer to how some unscrupulous elements in the gold trade were taking customers for a ride by branding spurious or sub-standard gold as pure by affixing the hallmark.

“Sudarshan was found fixing the BIS 916 hallmark on gold and silver jewellery,” police said. Hallmark in a gold ornament guarantees purity and fineness of gold; it’s a form of consumer protection. Gold buyers are usually advised to look for a hallmark before going ahead with the purchase. A BIS 916-hallmarked ornament comprises the logo, purity of gold, logo of the assaying centre, jeweller code and year of manufacturing.

In fact, the first thing a gold salesman does to convince a customer to buy jewellery is to explain the purity of gold through the hallmark. “But in ornaments with fake hallmarks, the assured caratage won’t be there,” the officer said, adding: “Preliminary investigations have revealed the accused had been operating for the past six months without licence. We are yet to ascertain the quantum of substandard gold that has been certified by him so far. We feel a lot of gold buyers would have been cheated.”

Joint commissioner (crime) Sandeep Patil, who inspected the fake testing centre, tweeted: “All that glitters may not be gold. Raided a person running fake gold testing centre…gives false certification of gold purity…could have duped many innocent purchasers. Further investigation is on.”

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