Delhi court denies advance bail to Navneet Kalra in oxygen concentrators black marketing case

Delhi police had opposed his anticipatory bail plea stating that the investigation was at a very early stage

A Delhi court on Thursday rejected a plea for anticipatory bail made by high-profile businessman Navneet Kalra in connection with the case of black marketing of oxygen concentrators during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Additional sessions judge, Saket court, Sandeep Garg declined advance bail to Kalra, who owned multiple restaurants and other businesses, at upscale, Khan Market here.

The court said no case for any relief was made out as the possibility of the accused tampering with the evidence or intimidating the prosecution witnesses cannot be ruled out. It allowed a plea by the Delhi Police that custodial interrogation of the accused was required to unearth the entire conspiracy hatched between him and a number of co-accused persons.

The court said the allegations levelled against the accused are serious as he sold poor quality China-made oxygen concentrators at exorbitant prices with fraudulent representation that those were of premium class, manufactured with German collaboration.

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"The accused is reported to have collected advance payments from several needy persons for the supply of oxygen concentrators and he kept on postponing the delivery on the pretext of the shipment being held up. He kept on increasing the price and eventually, he neither supplied the product to several persons nor refunded their advance amounts," the court noted.

The prosecutor opposed the bail plea by Kalra saying on May 5, co-accused Gaurav Suri, Satish Sethi, Hitesh Kumar and Vikrant were arrested. During their interrogation, they disclosed that they used to purchase oxygen concentrators and other Covid-19 treatment-related equipment from various means and sold them at exorbitant prices to needy persons.

As many as 387 oxygen concentrators, 112 boxes containing KN-95 Masks and 95 oximeters were recovered at the instance of accused persons here.

On May 7, 96 oxygen concentrators were recovered from Khan Chacha Restaurant, Khan Market, New Delhi. Invoices in the name of Dayal Opticals for selling 250 Units of Oxygen concentrators were seized at the instance of accused Hitesh, he claimed.

Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, representing Kalra, had argued that his client had only carried out a legitimate transaction of import of the oxygen concentrators and customs authorities were aware of the transaction. “The GST was deposited with the government. Invoices were given and returns were filed," he claimed, adding Kalra was implicated in a false case on account of business and personal rivalry by a third party.