Delhi Police recover over 100 oxygen concentrators from two upscale restaurants

New Delhi, May 7 (PTI) Days after four men were nabbed for allegedly black-marketing oxygen concentrators, the Delhi Police on Friday said they conducted raids at two upscale restaurants here and recovered 105 more such machines, used in the treatment of COVID patients.

According to the police, 96 oxygen concentrators were recovered from Khan Chacha Restaurant and nine were seized from Town Hall restaurant, both situated in the Khan Market area.

The recovery of over 100 oxygen concentrators comes after the arrest of four men -- Gaurav, Satish Sethi, Vikrant and Hitesh -- from a restaurant-cum-bar in south Delhi's Lodhi Colony area on Wednesday who were allegedly involved in hoarding and black marketing oxygen concentrators, police said.

After the arrest of the four men, the police had recovered 419 oxygen concentrators that were meant to be sold in the black market.

The accused were produced in a court which granted one-day police custody, a senior police officer said.

"During interrogation, Hitesh had disclosed that they had stored some more oxygen concentrators at restaurants situated in the Khan Market area, following which a police team conducted a raid on Thursday night at Townhall Restaurant and recovered nine oxygen concentrators.

"The accused also told the police that more oxygen concentrators had been kept at Khan Chacha restaurant. The team conducted another raid and recovered 96 concentrators from Khan Chacha restaurant. With this, a total of 524 oxygen concentrators have been recovered so far," Deputy Commissioner of Police (south) Atul Kumar Thakur said.

Navneet Kalra is the owner of the restaurants. His mobile phone is switched off and he is currently absconding, police said.

The oxygen concentrators had been imported from China by a company. The cost of one oxygen concentrator was between Rs 16,000 to Rs 22,000. Some of them had a capacity of five litres while others were of nine litres, police said.

The accused were selling the machines at a price range of Rs 50,000, to 70,000, the officer said.

They had been importing the oxygen concentrators from October last year and when the demand increased in February this year, more such machines were imported and stored at different restaurants, police said.

The accused were selling these machines through online portals and messages were also being circulated on WhatsApp, the officer said.

Matrix Cellular is one of the companies which was involved in importing the machines. A person named Gagan is the owner of the company and he too is being investigated, they said.

The company recently go a lot of 650 concentrators, of which, 524 have been recovered, police said.

"With further seizure of 105 #OxygenConcentrator from Khan Chacha & Town Hall, 2 upscale restaurants in Khan Mkt, total 524 seized frm #blackmarketers Owner Navneet Kalra, also owns Dayal Opticals, is on run. Manager, 3 staffers arrested by #DelhiPolice SouthDist. Further raids on," the Delhi Police said in a tweet.

Kalra also owns another restaurant where police had conducted raids and recovered oxygen concentrators on Wednesday.

Earlier, the police had said that Nege Ju Restaurant and Bar in central market Lodhi Colony was found open on Wednesday.

A man was found working on a laptop at the restaurant who was later found taking online orders for oxygen concentrators, police had said earlier.

Police had searched the restaurant premises and recovered 32 boxes of oxygen concentrators, one box of thermal scanner and another box containing N 95 masks, the officer had said.

A case was registered and four accused persons were arrested.

During interrogation, the accused disclosed about their warehouse in Chhatarpur following which a search was conducted and 387 more units of oxygen concentrators were recovered which were being sold at exorbitant prices in black market. The warehouse, which was opened at a farm house, was being operated by Matrix Cellular company, police said.

Invoices of these oxygen concentrators were recovered. MRP stickers displaying a price of Rs 69,999 per concentrator were also recovered. PTI NIT NIT TDS TDS