Covid-19 crisis | 144 held for black-marketing, hoarding: Pandemic turns into money-minting opportunity in Delhi

At least 225 cases have been registered since Delhi Police started a helpline on May 1 for complaints on black-marketing and hoarding of medicines and equipment

An oxygen concentrator worth Rs 31,000 sold at Rs 1.65 lakh; an oxygen cylinder of Rs 40,000 sold at Rs 1.45 lakh; Rs 14,000 charged for a 6-km ambulance ride from a hospital to a crematorium; an Ayurveda doctor black-marketing medicines and a nurse stealing Remdesivir to sell it for Rs 70,000 -- the Covid-19 pandemic has become a money-minting opportunity for many in Delhi.

At least 225 cases have been registered since Delhi Police started a helpline on May 1 to receive complaints related to black-marketing and hoarding of medicines and equipment as well as overcharging by ambulance services.

So far, 144 people -- most of them below the age of 40 years -- have been arrested till May 5 in such cases. More cases and arrests have been added to this list in the last three days, a senior police official said.

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Police have also started intensively taking action against those using the cyber space and mobile network to cheat people and have identified over 200 mobile numbers, 95 bank accounts, 33 UTRs and 17 UPI/Wallets involved in this crime.

Most of those arrested in connection with the Covid-19 cases do not have any criminal history. The arrested included an Ayurvedic doctor, a nurse, a nursing assistant, several chemists and ambulance drivers, among others.

Khan Chacha, Town Hall and Nege Ju -- food joints in posh Delhi localities like Lodhi and Khan Market run by businessman Navneet Kalra -- also earned the ignominy of hoarding after police recovered 524 oxygen concentrators, which were being sold at Rs 70,000 each.

In one of the cases, one Bharat Juneja was frantically searching for an oxygen concentrator after his mother and wife tested positive for Covid-19. After several failed attempts to procure one, he managed to get in touch with one Anuj Mishra, who promised him one at a price of Rs 1.65 lakh.

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Juneja paid the amount but soon found out that the oxygen concentrator was not working. When he asked for a refund, Mishra allegedly refused and the matter reached the police, who arrested him along with another person, Gurmeet Singh (36).

The scramble for Remdesivir also has given an opportunity for fraud and black-marketing. A 30-year-old Ayurveda doctor Prashant, along with the security guard of a hospital in Nangloi where they are working, used to sell it at a higher price.

Parshant used to get Remdesivir injections from Sonia Hospital in the name of admitted serious patients and allegedly used to sell it for Rs 32,000 each with the help of the guard Ashwani (32).

Lalitesh, a nurse in a prominent hospital in north-west Delhi, who was deployed in Covid-19 wards, used a different modus operandi to rake in some moolah with her friends. After a patient had been discharged, she used to record the unused Remdesivir injections marked for them as used and hand it over to her friends to sell it for Rs 70,000.

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A section of ambulance drivers are also using the pandemic to make some quick money, but several have landed in the police net. Kandhi Lal, a driver, was apprehended after police sent a decoy from whom he demanded Rs 14,000 for a 6-km ride from a hospital to NigamBodh Ghat crematorium in north-west Delhi.

In another case, Rs 6,500 was demanded by an ambulance driver for taking the body of a Covid-19 patient from a hospital to a crematorium 3 km away.