Mumbai: When criminals are idolised and used for commercial purposes, police are bound to take action.
The cyber wing of Maharashtra Police on Thursday registered a case against multiple e-commerce websites for allegedly selling T-shirts with printed photos of fugitive criminal Dawood Ibrahim and jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
During the course of an online vigilance exercise, the cyber wing officials spotted the T-shirts at Flipkart, Etsy, AliExpress and Teeshopper.
“The products, which idolise criminal figures, pose a significant risk to society by promoting a distorted image (of values) which could influence young minds negatively,” India Today quoted an official of Maharashtra cyber cell as saying.
A T-shirt with Dawood’s image, listed on Etsy, was available for Rs 1,500.
On November 5, e-commerce platforms like Meesho, Flipkart, and Teeshopper faced backlash for selling T-shirts featuring Lawrence’s image after an X user shared screenshots of the products listed on the platforms.
The 67-year-old Dawood is wanted by Indian agencies for his role in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and many other cases.
Lawrence, linked to more than 70 cases under anti-terror laws, is lodged in Gujarat’s Sabarmati jail. His gang has claimed responsibility for high-profile crimes, including the killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala and Maharashtra politician Baba Siddique, and issuing threats to Bollywood superstar Salman Khan.
