On January 20, officials from the Bureau of Indian Standards conducted a special enforcement (search and seizure) drive in major cities across Maharashtra to prevent the abuse of the BIS hallmark on gold jewellery. The raid occurred at six locations in Maharashtra, including major cities like Mumbai, Thane, Pune, and Nagpur.
Two establishments in Mumbai's Zaveri Bazar were raided as part of the operation, which resulted in the seizure of over 2.75 kg of gold jewellery valued at over Rs 1.5 crore. Similar operations in Thane, Pune, and Nagpur resulted in the seizure of spuriously marked jewellery and the initiation of legal action against such firms engaged in duping customers by applying fake hallmarks on gold jewellery, as well as using hallmarks on gold jewellery without adequate testing and quality checks specified by BIS.
The search and seizure operations were carried out at the premises of Shree Shankeshwar Assaying and Tunch, Zaveri Bazar, Mumbai, Jai Vaishnav Hallmarking Centre, Zaveri Bazar, Mumbai, Vishal Hallmarking Centre, Jambli Naka, Thane, Shree Shankeshwar Assaying and Hallmarking Centre, Andheri, Mumbai, Jogeshwari Assaying and Hallmarking Centre, Ravivar Peth, Pune, and Riddhi Siddhi Hallmark, Itwari, Nagpur.