A Delhi court on Saturday granted bail to businessman Navneet Kalra in connection with a case relating to the hoarding of oxygen concentrators at a restaurant in South Delhi. The bail was granted subject to a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and two sureties of the like amount.
The prosecution had contended that Kalra, along with other co-accused, "hatched a conspiracy" to wrongfully make money by "inducing" the public to buy his oxygen concentrators at an "exorbitant rate" amid a raging pandemic. He committed a white-collar crime and earned profits by selling medical devices at exorbitant prices to those on death beds, the Delhi Police told a court on Saturday.
Kalra, in his plea on Saturday, had submitted that he had no criminal intent to cheat people and cannot be kept in pre-trial detention. “I had no criminal intent to cheat anyone. The government has benefited from my sales, they got GST. I paid the income tax," senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, who appeared on behalf of Kalra, submitted before the court. “My invoices and oxygen concentrators are with them [the police]. No more recoveries are to be made against me. I cannot be put in pre-trial detention," he added.
Further, Advocate Pahwa said that his client traded the oxygen concentrators at a lower price than other online portals and sold them to merely help family and friends. The lawyer also sought bail on the grounds of parity as five co-accused in the case have already been enlarged on bail. He further refuted the allegations of blackmarketing or hoarding of the concentrators.
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On the allegation of poor working capacity of the concentrators, he said, “It is not substandard. If it was substandard, why did Delhi police give it to COVID centres. This is a clear cut case of making somebody a scapegoat.”
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg heard the bail application filed by the businessman who was arrested on May 17 for allegedly hoarding oxygen concentrators and selling them at inflated prices.
During the raid, 524 oxygen concentrators, which are crucial medical equipment used for COVID-19 patients, were recovered from Khan Chacha, Town Hall, and Nege & Ju restaurants owned by Kalra. The restaurateur has since been in judicial custody till June 3.
