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Kalra denied pre-arrest bail in O2 devices case, moves HC
The order came a day after four other co-accused obtained regular bail from the court of the chief metropolitan magistrate who said that the offence being established by the police was unclear.
A Delhi court on Thursday refused to grant protection from arrest to businessman Navneet Kalra, who has been charged with hoarding oxygen concentrators and selling them at inflated prices, saying his custodial interrogation was required to unearth the entire alleged conspiracy, and that, if released, he may jump bail or tamper with evidence.
Later in the day, Kalra approached the Delhi high court challenging the trial court decision. A single judge bench of justice Subramonium Prasad heard senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Kalra and posted the matter for further hearing on Friday.
The order came a day after four other co-accused obtained regular bail from the court of the chief metropolitan magistrate who said that the offence being established by the police was unclear.
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 in the company. Khanna was the last person to be arrested from Gurugram on Friday.
A city court granted bail to Khanna, Gaurav and Vikrant and Sethi on Wednesday.
Kalra, who operates optical stores and restaurants, approached the trial court claiming that he was doing business with a company Matrix Cellular (International) Services Limited in supplying oxygen concentrators to the needy affected by Covid-19 pandemic. He questioned the charge of cheating (IPC Section 420) invoked against him when there was no complaint made against him by any purchaser.
Kalra also challenged charges under the Essential Commodities Act and the Epidemic Act for selling oxygen concentrators above its maximum retail price (MRP), saying till the time the police registered the case on May 5 against him and four others, there was no cap or ceiling price fixed for the concentrators by the Union or state governments. It was only on May 7, 2021 that the Drugs and Control Department of the Delhi government issued an order restricting sale of medical devices over and above the MRP, Kalra said in his anticipatory bail plea.
Additional sessions judge Sandeep Garg rejected Kalra’s plea and said, “The accused persons have hatched a deep-rooted conspiracy to gain wrongfully, using the painfully pathetic situation caused due to the pandemic and compelled the needy persons to part with their hard-earned money much in excess of the acceptable international market rates of oxygen concentrators.”
The judge noted that the concentrators were kept at three restaurants where Kalra held substantial stake, and each device was allegedly being sold at a price of about ₹70,000.
The remarks made by the ASJ Garg rejecting Kalra’s pre-arrest bail stand in contrast to the bail order passed on Wednesday by chief metropolitan magistrate Arun Kumar Garg while releasing on bail the other four co-accused.
The CMM noted in his order that “not even a prima facie case under IPC Section 420” was made out against the accused. The prosecution alleged Kalra to be the prime accused along with Matrix Cellular for cheating public at large by claiming that the products were of German technology and they provided 90% oxygen flow for use by two persons. However, the devices were Chinese products that could deliver an efficiency of 32%, the prosecution said.
While the CMM held this to be a case of “breach of contract” and not cheating, ASJ Garg found substance in the same and said, “The allegations levelled against the applicant/accused are serious i.e. he made fraudulent representation to the effect that he was selling premium portable oxygen concentrators, manufactured with German collaboration, which were sufficient to meet requirement of two persons.”
Even with regard to the charges under the Essential Commodities Act, Kalra was accused of selling the oxygen concentrators at “exorbitant” prices without informing the authorities about the MRPs pasted over the boxes containing the oxygen concentrators.
On the other hand, the CMM order of Wednesday punched holes into the police probe. Referring to the provisions contained in the FIR - Section 3 and 7 of the Essential Commodities (EC) Act, the CMM said that the said provisions were “invoked in the FIR without the investigating officer (IO) being sure about existence of any such notification (capping price of oxygen concentrators).”
