Pune’s Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale has filed a case against a local businessman for allegedly selling a version of its popular sweet and spicy crispy deep-fried snack, bakarwadi, under a deceptively similar brand name.
Deputy police commissioner Sandip Singh Gill said Chitale Sweet Home proprietor Pramod Prabhakar Chitale has been booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita’s sections 318(2) (cheating) and 350 (making a false mark upon any receptacle containing goods) and the Information Technology Act’s sections 66C and 66D (identity theft).
Pramod Prabhakar Chitale allegedly marketed bakarwadi packets imitating the original brand’s packaging and fraudulently using Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale’s customer care number, email ID, and manufacturing details.
The complaint filed in the case cited customer complaints about bakarwadi being sold under the Chitale name but not matching its taste or quality. “On procuring the product from the market, we found key differences in packaging, while the credentials printed on it falsely linked it to our company. Our lab tests...confirmed a clear difference between our original product and this imitation. The lookalike packet carries ‘Chitale Sweet Home’ in Marathi, along with ‘Puneri Special Bakarwadi’ and a photograph of the snack.”
The complainant said counterfeit bakarwadi packets displayed for sale at Chitale Sweet Home resembled the original ones. The fake product was allegedly promoted through online and offline marketing, causing financial losses and damage to the original brand.
In 1950, the late Shri Bhausaheb Chitale founded Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale, known for snacks such as bakarwadi, which are also exported to countries such as the United States and Singapore.
