Covid-19: 3 arrested in Delhi for black-marketing of oxygen concentrators

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Three men were arrested from west Delhi's Janakpuri for allegedly black marketing oxygen concentrators, police said on Saturday.

The accused have been identified as Bharat Agarwal (42), Ishant Gosain (31) and Ranbir Singh (29), they said.

Nineteen imported oxygen concentrators, three cars and cash worth Rs 7.80 lakh have been seized from their possession, police said.

Police laid a trap near the parking of District Centre, Janakpuri and apprehended the accused persons on Thursday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (west) Urvija Goel said.

The accused were selling the oxygen concentrators at Rs 1,30,000 per piece despite the fact that the market value of per piece is around Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000, police said.

In another incident, the Delhi Police arrested a person from Punjab for allegedly cheating people on the pretext of providing oxygen cylinders, officials said.

The accused has been identified as Ranvijay, a resident of Ghaziabad, UP, they said.

Taking advantage of the ongoing oxygen crisis, the accused started sending messages to people with the assurance to arrange oxygen cylinders, police said.

The accused shifted to Chandigarh from Ghaziabad after he came to know that police were searching for him. Police checked CCTV footage of the locality and identified the driver of a tempo who took Ranvijay from Ghaziabad to Chandigarh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Santosh Kumar Meena said.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident the northwest district police arrested a man for allegedly selling oxygen cylinders at exorbitant prices, officials said.

The accused has been identified as Abdul (29), a resident of Shakurpur. Three empty oxygen cylinders of 10 kg were recovered from his possession, they said.

On Friday, police got a tip-off and later, Abdul was found to be indulged in overcharging of oxygen cylinders. He was found selling one empty oxygen cylinder of 10 kg at Rs 15,000, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest) Guriqbal Singh Sidhu said.