[BREAKING] Delhi Court denies Navneet Kalra anticipatory bail in oxygen concentrator black marketing case

A Delhi Court today refused anticipatory bail to businessman Navneet Kalra in connection with the oxygen concentrator black marketing case being probed by the Delhi Police (Navneet Kalra v. State)..The order was passed by Additional Sessions Judge at Saket Courts, Sandeep Garg who opined that Kalra's custodial investigation was required to be carried out by Delhi Police to unearth the entire conspiracy. "The applicant/accused has not joined the investigation till date. Investigation in the case is at its initial stage. The mobile phone of applicant / accused which reportedly contains incriminating WhatsApp chats with customers, details of calls made to co-accused persons and his accounts are required to be seized. Custodial interrogation of applicant / accused is required to be carried out to unearth the entire conspiracy hatched between him and a number of co-accused persons.".As per the prosecution case, Navneet Kalra, along with other co-accused, "hatched a conspiracy" to wrongfully make money by "inducing" the public to buy his oxygen concentrators at an "exorbitant rate" amid a raging pandemic..Delhi Police opposed Kalra'a anticipatory bail on the ground that the investigation was at a very early stage and that Kalra's custodial interrogation was imperative to further unearth his relationship with other parties..It was argued that no anticipatory bail could be granted to "influential persons" who have the potential to tamper with evidence. .The prosecution contended that Kalra had made "crores of rupees" by inducing the needy public to believe that his oxygen concentrators were "premium", "German" and "sufficient for two persons"..Relying on a report from Sri Ram laboratory, the prosecution asserted that the sample oxygen concentrator had come out as having "poor quality" and were "not working"..Kalra, on the other hand, claimed that he was being "framed" based on content on social media and was made a scapegoat to divert attention from more pressing issues. .It was submitted that the oxygen concentrators seized from his restaurants were authenticated and properly imported, and were sold after raising invoices. .On the allegations that the concentrators were being sold at exorbitant prices, Kalra highlighted that the government authorities itself had not fixed a ceiling price for the machines..The Court opined that there was prima facie incriminating evidence on record against Navneet Kalra to the effect that contrary to the brochure, the concentrators being sold by him were not manufactured with "German collaboration" and were manufactured in China. .Considering the lab reports, the Court added that the average output in terms of Oxygen purity of two samples was found to be 32.7 % & 38.2 % and with the laboratory room air, the Oxygen concentration was found to be merely 20.8 %..With regards the allegations of price manipulation by Kalra, the Court noted, "As per statement of one aggrieved, the applicant/accused had firstly quoted the price of Oxygen concentrator as Rs. 49,999/- and on the next day, he forced him to pay Rs. 55,000/- owing to his urgent requirement.. The applicant/accused is reported to have collected advance payments from several needy persons for supply of Oxygen concentrators and he kept on postponing the delivery on the pretext of shipment being held-up. He kept on increasing the price of the same and eventually, he neither supplied the product to several persons, nor refunded their advance amounts.".The anticipatory bail was accordingly rejected. . Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa with Advocate Vineet Malhotra appeared for Kalra. APP Atul Srivastava appeared for the State. .Read the order: