No bail for Covid resource hoarder

New Delhi: It is not out of place to state that the

general public

in Delhi is facing

immense hardship

, both physical and mental, in securing

medical equipment

for themselves and their near and dear ones as a high number of people have got infected with Covid-19 during the second wave, said a court while dismissing the

bail plea

of a

man

arrested for allegedly

hoarding

and

black marketing

a large number of Covid-related equipment.

“Accused claims to be a bonafide seller of medical articles/goods recovered from his possession but has failed to show any document that he had been lawfully purchasing and selling those articles. He has also failed to disclose the source of his purchase,” said chief metropolitan magistrate Atul Krishna Agrawal.

According to police, the complainant in the case got in touch with Anand Gupta for an oximeter and reportedly bought one for Rs 6,000 though the price range was between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500.

After an FIR was registered following the complaint, a police party raided Gupta’s house and found 1,000 N95 and surgical masks each, 56 vaporiser-cum-inhalers, 655 digital thermometers, 100 oxygen masks, 150 pulse oximeters, four sanitisers, 30 nano-meter spray bottles and three coating machines along with 300 oximeter packing covers bearing a price tag of Rs 3,999.

Gupta, it was alleged, could not show any permission or licence for storing the medical equipment following which police seized the goods and

arrested

him.

The counsel appearing for the accused argued that his client had been in judicial custody for about 15 days and claimed most of these items were readily available in medical shops or general stores as well as on online portals.

Two invoices regarding purchase of digital thermometers, vaporisers and oximeters were placed on record along with the bail application. The counsel claimed the items were not notified under Essential Commodities Act and the oximeter sold to the complainant had not been recovered by police.

The public prosecutor contested that Gupta was involved in black marketing and hoarding of essential medical equipment in a pandemic situation. He also highlighted that the pulse oximeters had been notified under Essential Commodities Act on June 29, 2020 in a Union chemical and fertilizer ministry’s office memorandum.

Opining that the allegations were “quite serious”, the court said a couple of invoices filed by Gupta were in the name of a company that appeared to have been engaged in the technical field, not medical arena. “The accused fails to show his connection with the said company... The pulse oximeters allegedly recovered from the accused are duly notified under the Essential Commodities Act...” the order stated. “Recovery of oximeter packing cover with inflated price of Rs 3, 999 shows that the accused intended to sell them at a much higher price than the actual MRP,” it underlined.