One may have heard of offers by companies and traders like "buy one get one free" and others, especially during the festivals, but an Uttar Pradesh shopkeeper, who sold mobile phones, offered something so unusual during the Holi festival that buyers made a beeline before his shop, though it landed him in jail.
The shopkeeper, in UP's Bhadohi town, offered to give two beer cans free with the purchase of a mobile phone.
According to reports, the shopkeeper, identified as Rajesh Maurya, put up a flex board outside his mobile phone shop containing photos of cell phones and beer cans. ''Holi bumper dhamaka (big announcement)....buy a mobile phone, get two beer cans free'' was written on the board in bold letters in Hindi. The board came up a few days before the Holi festival.
Soon, crowds of buyers thronged his shop and Maurya reportedly sold a large number of mobile phones within no time. Some people even bought more than one cell phone so that they could get more beer cans for free.
One of the buyers even got himself photographed with two mobile phone sets and four cans of beer and later uploaded his picture on social media.
The matter came to light after one of the buyers clicked a picture of the flex board containing the offer and uploaded it on social media.
The police, on seeing the post, swung into action and arrested Maurya under Section 151 (disturbing public peace) of the Indian Penal Code. A senior police official said in Bhadohi that a police team, which was sent to the shop to verify the information, arrested the shopkeeper after it was found to be true.