"Police have also got Oxygen Concentrators from me:" Navneet Kalra chokes up in court

A Delhi court on Saturday dismissed a plea by Delhi Police for police custody of businessperson Navneet Kalra in the oxygen concentrator black marketing case..The order was passed by Meropolitan Magistrate Vasundhra Azad. ."In my considered opinion, police remand is not warranted," the judge order. .The plea by Kalra for bail will be heard on May 25 at 11 am. .Kalra was arrested by the police on the evening of May 16 from his brother-in-law’s farmhouse in Gurugram. He was thereafter remanded to three days' police custody.A case was filed under Sections 3 and 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, among other provision of law, against Kalra after the Delhi Police recovered oxygen concentrators from "Khan Chacha" and other restaurants owned by him.The police claimed that the imported concentrators were being sold in the black market amid the COVID-19 crisis.He was sent to 14-day judicial custody in the case by the Metropolitan Magistrate after it opined that no case was made out for further extension of police custody. .Earlier this month, the Delhi High Court had declined to grant any interim relief to Kalra in connection with the case. .In the hearing today, Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Atul Shrivastav appearing for the police, sought Kalra's custody on the ground that he needs to be confronted with mobile phone data and bank account details which have become available."Right from the very beginning we have been asking for PC remand to confront the accused with mobile details. Some of the WhatsApp screenshots are available with us asking for refunds because the concentrators supplied were not working," he said..The APP also claimed that AIIMS doctors had after examining the concentrators recovered from Kalra's premises, given expert opinion that the Oxygen concentrators supplied by him were useless..Advocate Vineet Malhotra appearing for Kalra opposed the argument stating that the Kalra does not manufacture or import any oxygen concentrators. He got 700 of them from the producer, Matrix and the same was stored in his premises for distribution to some friends, relatives and customers. He also submitted that Kalra himself had given his bank account details to the police before the arrest. Regarding the allegation that the concentrators were below par in quality, Malhotra said that the police after recovering the same supplied 450 of them to COVID care centres. "Same machines have been sold by Matrix to SpiceJet airline. 250 of the same brand of concentrators were procured by Salman Khan," he claimed.Kalra has been made a scapegoat, he added. .Further, Malhotra also said that there was no misrepresentation regarding the quality of the concentrators since they delivered what they represented as its oxygen capacity. .At this juncture, the Court allowed Kalra, who was present for hearing via video conference from jail, to speak. "Police have also got concentrators from me. I am not manufacturer or importer of these machines. I have so many messages saying machines bought from me saved lives. I also replaced machines in three or four cases when it was pointed out that they were defective," Kalra said choking up. .Why is APP Shrivastav not speaking about positive messages on my phone and is instead focusing only on old messages, he demanded. .The Court eventually proceeded to decline the plea for further police custody while posting Kalra's bail application for hearing on coming Tuesday.