Nearly 12 shoe boxes were seized from a footwear shop in Almora on Thursday, August 24, as they displayed the three colours of the country's national flag.
Police have begun investigating after the shopkeepers in Uttarakhand's Almora alleged that they were delivered these from China.
Reports further reveal that the shoe boxes had a label with Chinese characters and had a line saying – 'Country of origin: China' and also had the year of import as 2017. The incident comes at a time when India and China are having bitter relationship over the Doklam standoff in the Sikkim sector.
The Almora Police, after seizing the shoe boxes, have filed an FIR against Tamanna Footwear in Rudrapur for insulting the National Flag under Section 2 of Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act of 1971, according to Times of India report.
Almora Senior Superintendent of Police P Renuka Devi said that putting shoes in boxes with the national colours was an insult to the Tricolour, according to a Hindustan Times report.
The owner of Bora Shoe Collection, Bishan Singh Bora, told TOI that he had received the boxes from Tamanna Footwear. He said that after he noticed the design of Tricolour on the boxes, he immediately reported it to the cops.
According to initial investigations, the police found that the shoes were initially supplied to Delhi and were sent to Rudrapur from there. Further investigations are on to check if the shoes in the boxes were manufactured in China as mentioned in the label.
Not the first time
This is not the first time that the Tricolour has been disgraced. Back in 2015, mass outrage broke out after it emerged that a Chinese shoe company had launched shoes in India with a cover of Indian flag on the shoe boxes in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh.
