WHERE’S MY NAME? Sharbari Datta inspects one of the kurtas being sold at the exhibition, allegedly after the tags bearing her label had been removed. (Pabitra Das)

Copycat fashion took a bizarre turn over the weekend when Sharbari Datta chanced upon what she insists are her own creations being sold under a different label at an exhibition she had gone to inaugurate.

“I was shocked to see the collection and immediately recognised the pieces. There’s no doubt these are my kurtas that were somehow stolen,” she told Metro, soon after reporting the “theft and rip-off” to police.

Datta promptly bought eight pieces as evidence, for Rs 2,000 each. The price of each of the kurtas under the Sharbari label would be around Rs 8,000.

The veteran men’s wear designer had been invited for the opening of an exhibition at Rashbehari titled Thema by a branch of the All India Women’s Conference.

Browsing the stuff on offer, Datta stopped at a collection of silk kurtas that she recognised as her own. “Looking closely, I spotted that the tags bearing my label (Sharbari) had been removed from the kurtas, leaving behind stitch marks,” she said.

The collection comprised 12 kurtas, out of which five, claimed Datta, are hers. “The rest use special fabric developed by me and my tailoring style, but the embroidery work on them is not my handwork, but copies.”

Saikat Banerjee, the man behind the collection, was a fabric supplier to Datta some 10 years ago, after which he started designing on his own. He has been retailing from his Garfa home and through exhibitions.

“These are all my own work. They are inspired by Sharbari Datta’s work, but not imitations. I haven’t seen her work closely enough to copy her designs,” Banerjee told Metro.

But how did Banerjee, who runs a small production unit with one tailor, get hold of her kurtas? “I cannot say how the kurtas reached him and how the theft was carried out. But it is clear that it has been done over a period of time, since some of the pieces belong to my two or three-year-old collections while some are from the newer ones,” said Datta.

Aloke Kumar Ghosh, the officer-in-charge of Karaya police station, said Datta’s daughter-in-law Kanaklata had lodged a complaint against Banerjee. “Officers are probing the matter to decide if a case of cheating will be started,” Ghosh said.

If found guilty, the accused faces imprisonment of up to seven years.

The organisers said it was not their responsibility to check what was being sold through their exhibition. “We give out the tables on rent and our involvement ends there. We don’t even take commissions from the sale,” said Krishna Ganguly, of the Canal West Branch of the All India Women’s Conference.

Datta, who has over the years got used to her “style of work” being ripped off, concluded: “I am feeling cheated. What hurts most is that it is a theft of my creativity. I don’t feel worried or threatened, just depressed.”