‘What’s the offence?’: 4 get bail in O2 device case; order on Kalra’s bail today

The court granted bail to Khanna, Gaurav, Vikrant and Sethi on Wednesday.

A Delhi court on Wednesday granted bail to four people, including the CEO and vice-president of Matrix Cellular, for their alleged role in hoarding and selling oxygen concentrators, saying it was unable to understand the offence they had committed. Meanwhile, another city court reserved its order on the anticipatory bail plea by co-accused Navneet Kalra till Thursday.

Delhi Police sealed Khan Chacha restaurant after oxygen concentrators and other medical supplies being black marketted were seized from here in Khan Market, in New Delhi. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

While Kalra has allegedly been 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 last week, the police arrested five people, including the manager of Nege & Ju restaurant, Hitesh, and four senior officials of Matrix Cellular – Gourav Khanna, the chief executive officer (CEO), Gaurav, who is the business head, Sathish Sethi, the manager, and Vikrant, a sales executive. Khanna was the last person to be arrested from Gurugram on Friday.

The court granted bail to Khanna, Gaurav, Vikrant and Sethi on Wednesday.

According to Delhi Police, Matrix Cellular received a consignment of 650 oxygen concentrators from China, of which 524 have been recovered. The concentrators were being sold for ₹70,000 each. The court, however, wanted to know if there was any illegality in this.

“It may be noted that the gravamen of the case of prosecution is the alleged black marketing and hoarding of concentrators by the accused, however, the aforesaid terms are not defined in any of the Acts under consideration before this court,” chief metropolitan magistrate (CMM) Arun Kumar Garg said, while granting bail to the four accused.

He said “no prima facie case under section 420 IPC is made out against the accused, at least from the contents of the FIR”.

“The court is unable to comprehend as to why the provisions of Prevention of Black Marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of the Essential Commodities Act, 1980 are not being invoked by the state, if the state wants to stop black marketing,” the magistrate added.

Kalra plea order reserved

Meanwhile, additional sessions judge Sandeep Garg reserved the order on the pre-arrest bail plea by Kalra for Thursday at 10am, after hearing the arguments of the prosecution and defence.

Public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava told the court that Kalra’s custodial interrogation was required and that bail should not be granted as he was an influential person.“His intention was to cheat the public at large and wrongfully gain. Had Delhi Police not busted the racket, many people would have been cheated,” he alleged.

Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, representing Kalra, asked the court how can his client be accused of selling the oxygen concentrators at exorbitant prices, if there is no ceiling price fixed by the government.

“There is no MRP fixed by the government till date. How will you decide if the prices are exorbitant?” he asked.