Oxygen concentrator case: Delhi Police get Navneet Kalra’s custody for 3 days

Delhi Police spokesperson Chinmoy Biswal on Monday said a team from Maidan Garhi police station caught Kalra and then handed him over to the crime branch, which is investigating the case. He was produced before the magistrate in the Saket court on Monday.

The Delhi Police on Monday said businessman Navneet Kalra, who has been charged with hoarding oxygen concentrators and selling them at inflated prices, was hiding at a farmhouse owned by his in-laws in Gurugram, along with his family. He was arrested from there by a police team late on Sunday evening.

Businessman Navneet Kalra, accused in connection with the recovery and seizure of Oxygen Concentrators by the Delhi police, being produced in a court, in New Delhi on May 17, 2021. (PTI Photo)

Delhi Police spokesperson Chinmoy Biswal on Monday said a team from Maidan Garhi police station caught Kalra and then handed him over to the crime branch, which is investigating the case. He was produced before the magistrate in the Saket court on Monday.

Metropolitan magistrate Archana Beniwal sent Kalra for three days of custodial interrogation after the Delhi Police said his custody is required to unearth the whole nexus and conspiracy behind the black marketing and know the trail of money transaction. Kalra will now be produced before the court at the end of his police remand on May 20.

Kalra’s lawyer Vineet Malhotra said his client’s bank details, mobile phone, laptop and gadgets were already available with police and that his custodial interrogation was not required. “Remand must be granted only in cases of real necessity. For what purpose do they need custody? They need to know the trail? They can get any information they want from me. Request for the police remand is absurd,” Malhotra said.

Kalra was allegedly on the run since the recovery of 524 oxygen concentrators from three of his restaurants – Khan Chacha, Town Hall and Nege & Ju – and from the office of Matrix Cellular between May 5 and May 7. A Delhi court on Thursday refused to grant protection from arrest to Kalra, following which he moved the Delhi high court. The high court on Friday also declined to grant any interim relief to him.

Five persons, including the manager of Nege & Ju restaurant, chief executive officer (CEO) and three senior officers of Matrix Cellular, were arrested since the recovery of the concentrators. All five were later released on bail while the case was transferred to the crime branch for further investigation, the police said.

While granting bail to the accused on May 13, the court said “no prima facie case under section 420 IPC is made out against the accused, at least from the contents of the FIR”, adding it was unable to understand the offence they had committed.

Investigators said multiple teams were conducting raids in Delhi, Haryana and Uttarakhand to arrest Kalra, who left his house in Chhatarpur along with his family members soon after the raids at his restaurants. They said he left without his driver and drove the car himself.

A senior police officer associated with the probe said the south district police on Sunday received information that Kalra was at a farmhouse in Gurugram. The information was checked and the location of the farmhouse was established. Around 8pm, on Sunday, a team from Maidan Garhi police station raided the farmhouse and arrested Kalra. His two cars – a Range Rover and a Thar jeep – in which he and his family members had left their Delhi home were also found parked at the farmhouse, the officer said.

“The farmhouse is owned by Kalra’s in-laws. We questioned Kalra and he told us that he had been there since May 5, the day 419 oxygen concentrators were seized in the first round of raids at his Nege & Ju restaurant and the office of Matrix Cellular. We are verifying Kalra’s claims regarding his presence at the farmhouse since May 5,” said the officer.

Police also said they also recovered Kalra’s two mobile phones from the farmhouse. Both were switched off. Investigators said they will analyse the call records and may send the phones to a forensic lab to find out of any “important and crucial data related to the case”.

Another police officer privy to the development said Kalra’s in-laws may also be asked to join the investigation and if required, they may be booked on charges of harbouring a fugitive.

“Kalra has told us that he never stepped out of the farmhouse. Also, except him and his family members nobody else was staying there. We are now trying to find out how they were arranging their daily household needs. Was anybody helping them with such items is also a part of the probe,” the second officer added.

Police have alleged that for each concentrator, Kalra and his partners made a profit of at least ₹55,000. The concentrators were bought for ₹14,000-15,000 each and sold at ₹70,000-75,000. Police said since October, they had bought nearly 7,500 concentrators and more than 2,000 concentrators were sold in Delhi.