After Kumaon, Dell might be banned in entire Uttarakhand?

The surprise police search conducted at around 10 IT dealers' premises of Kumaon, has forced the local IT traders association to impose a ban on the purchase and selling of any Dell products in the Kumaon market. It has been reported that the ban on Dell products started in the beginning of September, after a serial search in the month of August. Dell might be banned in the entire state of Uttarakhand, if the association does not get a clarification from Dell India, helping them identify the mastermind behind the police search, within next week.

Speaking to The DQ Week, Anil Upreti, secretary, Kumaon IT Traders Association (KITTA) said, "The entire incident has brought disrepute to our IT business and put us to humiliation. The mastermind behind this have questioned our reputation and unity. Therefore, time has come to act as one unit as also to work together to expose the real mastermind, condemn them and force them to pay for their shameful act. We are one and shall stand firmly together until justice is done."

While explaining the whole issue, Ranjan Samant, VP, KITTA; Bhuwan Joshi, founding member, KITTA, Commexcell Technologies, and the members of Kumaon IT Traders association unanimously commented, "KITTA has also got support from all the computer dealers of the nearby cities such as Rudrapur, Kashipur, Almora and Pithoragarh. Many members have shown support by asking for Sorry For Dell' message boards from KITTA to display on their retail store front."

The association members have jointly decided to impose a complete ban on Dell products. Presently, they have stopped buying products from the local distributor Comexcell, and are liquidating the available stock without making any fresh orders for Dell products.

He continued, "Post police search; the association demanded reasons behind these police search and asked them to show search warrant orders or any complaints being lodged against these dealers. But police remained silent on the whole issue. The most surprising element behind these searches was that the police only questioned the dealers about Dell products and its billing and invoices, which clearly indicates Dell's involvement. However, when we approached Asif Siddiqui, area sales manager, Uttarakhand, he could not provide any clarification on the search conducted by police."

As per Asif of Dell India, "Materials billed by Dell MSA (distributor of Uttarakhand) are the only authorized material other than that it is non-authorized material." He agreed that any material which is brought legally against 'form c' from the other states is not authorized material, even if the product of Dell India is legally brought into the state by paying all the necessary taxes and dues to the government. He and his Dell team will not provide any support on that.

Reacting to Asif's stand, Samant commented, "This is a clear violation of Section3 of Competition Act 2002 of India. It may mean that dealers do not have any choice, but buy product from Dell's appointed distributor or sub-distributor and further on, which also means that if you do not buy from the appointed choice you might be the next victim of police search conduct. There can be a chance that you may be strip down of this humiliation of police search conduct for not buying through their sub-distributor/distributor at their price on their conditions."

Finally, disappointed by the manner in which this whole case has been approached by Dell and its team all the dealers have decided to put a hold on the buying and selling Dell products and display a message board on their retail shops, saying "Sorry for Dell", calling it an unfair practice of unlawful act and competitiveness by Dell India.

Meanwhile the association is also seeking support from the Uttarakhand IT Association (UIITA) and Delhi based ADCTA.

According to Balbir Singh Rathore, president, UIITA, "After having a detailed discussion with Dell Uttarakhand and KIITA's representative we would like to suggest that Only Official Dell Vigilance team may investigate this matter and any legal options should only be taken, if absolutely necessary and if some fault is found in the preliminary investigation."
He also added, "Following this lead, Dell Uttarakhand is investigating this matter and will forward their decision at the earliest. The association asked Dell to any decision in this regard by keeping the association in the loop at every step of the way."

While showing ADCTAs support to KITTA, Swarn Singh, joint secretary, ADCTA said, "I had telephoned Kush Kher, RSM North, Dell India on this matter, he replied to my query saying that, the matter has been resolved in Kumaon."

On the contrary, when The DQ Week team investigated the matter in depth, it found that the issue is still unresolved and there is a great sense of anger and disappoint in the Kumaon IT traders.