The Delhi Police on Friday recovered as many as 96 oxygen concentrators from South Delhi’s popular restaurant Khan Chacha. “We have recovered 96 oxygen concentrators from Khan Chacha Restaurant in the Khan Market area,” stated Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) South Delhi Atul Bhatia. Earlier in the day, Bhatia had said the police recovered nine more concentrators.
The recovery came a day after the police arrested four people and seized 419 oxygen concentrators during raids conducted at Nege & Ju Restaurant and Bar in the central market of Lodhi Colony. The owner of both Khan Chacha and Nege & Ju is high-flying businessman Navneet Kalra, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.
The police reported that the concentrators were being sold online at exorbitant rates.
“BIGGEST HAUL | 419 #OxygenConcentrators seized by @DCPSouthDelhi #DelhiPolice PS Lodhi cly team from restaurant & bar Nege Ju and a south delhi farmhouse in raid on #hoarding #blackmarketing Were criminally profiteering by selling at 3 & half time rates to needy ppl. 4 arrested,” said the Delhi Police on Twitter.
Bhatia said the Lodhi Colony establishment came to their notice during area patrolling, when it was found open with some suspicious activity going on inside. “After searching the restaurant, one person was found sitting on a laptop and he was getting orders online for oxygen concentrators via the Xpect Everything online portal. On searching the restaurant premises, a total of 32 boxes of oxygen concentrators with capacity of 9 litre and 5 litre and a box of thermal scanners and another box containing N95 masks were found,” he added.
During the raid on Thursday, invoices of recovered oxygen concentrators were also found in the laptop along with stickers of maximum retail price (MRP) indicating prices of Rs 69,999 per concentrator.
The Delhi Police also released a video of the raid where the boxes of oxygen concentrators were seen piled up at the restaurant. The police have sealed the restaurant for now.
A case has been registered under several sections of the IPC, Essential Commodities Act and Epidemic Diseases Act, and four accused persons, namely Gaurav, Satish Sethi, Vikrant and Hitesh have been taken into custody.
During interrogation, the accused also revealed that they have a warehouse in Khullar Farm, Mandi Village. Over 400 more oxygen machines were also seized from a warehouse in Khullar Farms, Chattarpur.
Owner Navneet Kalra is believed to have gone underground since the surprise search operation by the Delhi Police took place on Thursday. The buzz is that Kalra could be hiding in a resort close to Haridwar as messages about his impending arrest are doing the rounds in Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Police sources say that they are probing into what could possibly be a larger nexus with multiple restaurants involved.
Navneet Kalra is a well-known name in Delhi’s social circuit. Apart from owning several restaurants, he owns the retail chain Dayal Opticals. All his restaurants are highly popular and are frequented by Delhi’s who’s who. Kalra is also close to several important cricketers.
WITH AGENCY INPUTS
