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Mumbai firm booked for hoarding 1,200 cylinders paid for by oxygen manufacturing company
PUNE The owners and senior staffers of a cylinder manufacturing and supplier company in Mumbai have been booked for hoarding 1,200 cylinders meant for an oxygen manufacturing firm, which was facing a high demand in the face of increased Covid-19 cases during the second wave of the pandemic
PUNE The owners and senior staffers of a cylinder manufacturing and supplier company in Mumbai have been booked for hoarding 1,200 cylinders meant for an oxygen manufacturing firm, which was facing a high demand in the face of increased Covid-19 cases during the second wave of the pandemic.
The accused have been identified as owners and senior office bearers at the company located in Cuffe Parade, Mumbai.
“The case is that, at the time of the delivery, they refused to deliver the cylinders at the rate at which the purchase was agreed upon. The payment was made through a bank which granted a loan to the oxygen provider company and paid the money to the cylinder supplier. We are yet to make arrests in this case, so I cannot discuss more details, but the oxygen provider had to source the cylinders from another place,” said Rahul Dhas, deputy superintendent of police, Daund division, Pune rural police.
The complainant is an employee of Oxyair Natural Resources which was one of the few companies that had been granted extra electricity by the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) to upscale oxygen production.
A complaint in the matter was lodged by Ajay Tatyaba Sawant (42) a resident of Someshwarnagar, Baramati.
The complaint in the matter states that the oxygen supplier company in Ranjangaon had placed and order for 1,280 cylinders from the Mumbai-based company.
The company had taken a loan to pay ₹60,79,360 to the cylinder company to make partial payment at the rate of ₹8,050 per cylinder. The cylinder supplier received the order on April 1 and had accepted an order to deliver within three-four weeks, according to the complaint.
However, when the time came for delivery, the oxygen supplier found that the company had used the money paid to them to manufacture the cylinders, but refused to deliver them. The cylinder supplier asked for ₹17,000 per cylinder instead of ₹8,050 per cylinder that was agreed upon, according to the complaint.
The cylinder company, therefore, hoarded an essential commodity and created fake scarcity in the market, according to the complainant.
A case under Sections 420 (cheating); 409, 406 (criminal breach of trust); 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life); 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant); 503 (criminal intimidation); and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with Sections 2, 3, 4 of National Disaster Management Act; Section 11 of Maharashtra Covid19 Regulation,2020; andSection 135 of Maharashtra Police Act has been registered at Ranjangaon MIDC police station.
