BIS Raids FirstCry’s Bengaluru Warehouse, Seizes Goods Worth INR 90 Lakh

At one of FirstCry's warehouses in Bengaluru, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) carried out search and seizure operations and found items valued at INR 90 lakh.

Bheemakkanahalli hamlet, Sulibele Hobli, Hoskote taluka, and Bengaluru rural district were all the sites of the one-day inspection. In a regulatory filing, FirstCry stated that several items valued at about INR 90,000,000 were seized as a result of the search.

Allegations of BIS and FirstCry's Response

According to the BIS, the company violated Section 14(6) of the BIS Act of 2016 by failing to use its standard mark or hallmark for a few of its items. FirstCry explained that the search operation had no effect on the company's activities and stated that it had cooperated completely with the authorities throughout the process.

The statement further stated that the company is seeking adequate legal assistance in support of its defence and has no cause to suspect that the products confiscated by BIS do not comply with BIS laws.

During the BSE intraday trading session on May 27, shares of Brainbees Solutions, the parent company of FirstCry, fell 6.4% to INR 351.15 per share from its previous close of INR 375.25 per share. The company's poor financial performance in the fourth quarter preceded the stock's decline.

What is BIS?

The National Standard Body of India, or BIS, was founded by the BIS Act of 2016 to promote the peaceful growth of the standardisation, marking, and quality certification of goods as well as for issues related or incidental to these operations.

The national economy has benefitted from traceability and tangibility in a number of ways, including the provision of safe, dependable, high-quality goods; the reduction of consumer health risks; the encouragement of imports and exports as alternatives; and the management of variety proliferation through standardisation, certification, and testing. In addition to its five Regional Offices (ROs) in Delhi (Central), Mumbai (Western), Chandigarh (Northern), Chennai (Southern), and Kolkata (Eastern), BIS maintains its headquarters in New Delhi.

In addition to providing certification services to the industry, the Branch Offices (BOs) under the Regional Offices are situated in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Lucknow, Nagpur, Parwanoo, Patna, Pune, Rajkot, Raipur, Durgapur, Jamshedpur, and Vishakhapatnam.