News Analysis India

Tag: Navneet Kalra

  • Navneet Kalra’s bail plea hearing adjourned to May 28 in oxygen concentrator case

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Tuesday adjourned to May 28 hearing on the bail application filed by businessman Navneet Kalra in connection with the oxygen concentrator black marketing case.

    During a recent raid, 524 oxygen concentrators were recovered from Khan Chacha, Town Hall, and Nege & Ju restaurants owned by Kalra.

    The restaurateur is in judicial custody till June 3.

    Metropolitan Magistrate Swati Sharma deferred the hearing in the matter to May 28 at 12 pm after advocate Vishal Gohri, representing the accused, sought adjournment.

    The court had adjourned hearing in the bail plea twice before on May 20 and 22.

    On May 22, the district court dismissed the plea of Delhi Police seeking five more days of custodial interrogation of Kalra.

    Earlier, a similar application was junked by a different judge on May 20 and Kalra was sent to 14-day judicial custody.

    Prior to this, the restaurateur was remanded to three days in police custody following his arrest.

    The businessman was nabbed from Gurugram on May 16 and arrested formally on the next day.

    Police claimed the concentrators were imported from China and were being sold at an exorbitant price of Rs 50,000 to 70,000 a piece against its cost of Rs 16,000 to Rs 22,000.

    The concentrators are crucial medical equipment used for COVID-19 patients and are in high demand amid the second wave of the pandemic.

    On May 5, a case was registered against Kalra under Section 420 (cheating), 188 (disobedience to order promulgated by public servant), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, Essential Commodities Act and Epidemic Diseases Act.

    The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also registered a money laundering case against him.

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  • ED raids premises linked to Navneet Kalra, others in oxygen concentrators hoarding case

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday raided premises linked to businessman Navneet Kalra and his associates in connection with a recent case of alleged hoarding and black-marketing of oxygen concentrators which are being anxiously scoured by those gasping for breath amid COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

    Official sources said the searches are being conducted at various locations in the national capital under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

    The raids are aimed to gather additional evidence, they said.

    The Enforcement Directorate (EC) had recently booked Kalra and others under the anti-money laundering law, taking cognisance of a Delhi Police FIR filed on May 5 after policemen raided some restaurants and premises owned and linked to Kalra.

    The police had recovered more than 500 of these life-saving machines from there and it was alleged that they were being hoarded and sold in the black market.

    Kalra had denied any wrongdoing and claimed the consignment was kept for regular sale.

    He was sent to 14 days judicial custody by a local court here on Thursday.

  • Delhi HC declines Kalra’s plea for speedy decision on bail by trial court; says let law take its own course

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday declined to direct an expeditious decision on the bail plea of businessman Navneet Kalra, arrested in connection with alleged black marketing of oxygen concentrators, saying “let the law take its own course”.

    Justice Subramonium Prasad also declined to interfere with the observations made by a sessions court while dismissing Kalra’s anticipatory bail plea, saying the Supreme Court has already laid down the law with regard to observations made by courts and their reporting by media organisations.

    The high court declined to grant the reliefs sought on behalf of Kalra, represented by senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, saying that he had moved an anticipatory bail plea which has become infructuous due to his arrest and therefore, nothing remains in the matter.

    Pahwa had made two oral prayers, at the start of hearing on Tuesday, that directions be issued to the trial court concerned to decide his client’s bail plea expeditiously and secondly, to expunge the observations made against Kalra by the sessions court as due to his arrest he can no longer challenge the order denying him anticipatory bail.

    A Delhi court on Monday remanded Kalra to three days of police custody, saying his custodial interrogation is required in connection with alleged black marketing and hoarding of oxygen concentrators amid the coronavirus pandemic.

    He was apprehended from Gurugram on Sunday night and was formally arrested on Monday.

    He was on the run for over a week since the seizure of 524 oxygen concentrators from Khan Chacha, Town Hall, and Nege & Ju restaurants owned by him.

    He was apprehended two days after the high court on May 14 declined to grant him any interim protection from arrest while his plea for anticipatory bail was pending before it.

    While the sessions court denied him anticipatory bail on May 13, a magisterial court on the same day granted bail to an arrested employee of upscale restaurant Town Hall, owned by Kalra, in connection with the case.

    Four employees of Matrix Cellular company, including its CEO and vice president, who were also arrested in the case are also out on bail.

    Kalra had bought the concentrators from Matrix Cellular which had imported them.

    On May 5, a case was registered against Kalra under Section 420 (cheating), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

    The FIR, also registered under Essential Commodities Act and Epidemic Diseases Act, for black marketing of oxygen cylinders prescribes maximum punishment for seven years.

  • Delhi Police tightens its grip on Navneet Kalra, issued lookout notice

    On the one hand, Corona is facing the second wave of epidemic across the country, on the other hand, cases of black marketing of important medicines and other medical equipment related to Corona are coming out every day from the capital and Delhi. Recently, hundreds of oxygen concentrators were recovered by the police by raiding three restaurants located in Khan Market of Navneet Kalra. These oxygen concentrators were being black marketed. Meanwhile, big information has been revealed about Navneet Kalra, accused of black marketing of oxygen concentrator.

    Actually on Monday, Delhi Police has issued a lookout notice against Navneet Kalra. After the input of Navneet Kalra’s escape abroad, Delhi Police has issued a lookout circular. Meanwhile, Navneet Kalra has made a new bet in Delhi’s Socket Court to avoid arrest. He has filed an anticipatory bail application.

  • Navneet Kalra oxygen racket unfolds: Twitterati demands strict action against him

    Delhi Police busted a gang of people who were hoarding and selling the oxygen concentrators on black market. The concentrators were found at multiple properties owned by the Delhi businessman Navneet Kalra. The case was transferred to the Crime Branch of Delhi Police on Saturday, as Kalra is nowhere to be found.

    But the news of this scandal has made the people of Delhi angry, as people want Kalra to be punished for such an ‘inhuman crime’ during the shortage of oxygen in national capital.