Coronavirus outbreak: Huge stock of masks, sanitisers seized in Mumbai; 10 held

Police have seized masks worth Rs 1 crore and hand sanitisers costing Rs 7 lakh from three places in Mumbai and arrested 10 people in this connection for trying to profiteer from the novel coronavirus outbreak, officials said on Sunday.

The seizure and arrests were made after raids were conducted in Goregaon East, Mankhurd and Dharavi areas on Saturday, they said.

The first raid was conducted on a shop in Gokuldham locality in Goregaon East by Crime Branch's Unit VIII where 614 sanitiser bottles worth Rs 2.22 lakh were seized and the establishment's owner Bharat Dubaria was handed over to Dindoshi police station for further action, officials said.

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A team of Unit X under senior inspector Sunil Mane raided a godown in Bainganwadi in Mankhurd and seized 2,97,800 masks worth Rs 74.90 lakh, and arrested four people, including a woman, they said.

"Accused Hussain Akhtar Niyazi (28), Khurshida Salim Sheikh (30), Shahid Abdul Kudus (25) and Vikas Laovejibhai Parmar (30) were handed over to Shivaji Nagar police station," Mane said.

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The third raid, by Unit XI, in Dharavi saw the seizure of 3,000 sanitiser bottles worth Rs 4.5 lakh and 1.51 lakh masks worth Rs 22.74 lakh.

Five people, identified as Adarsh Harishchandra Mishra (21), Shubham Kishor Tiwari (23), Asharaf Jamal Sheikh (50), Akhtar Hussain Faruqui (48) and Yusuf Ansari (31), were held during the raid, an official said.