2 arrested in Kanpur with huge quantities of medical equipment

Kanpur, May 6 (IANS) Continuing its crackdown on black marketing of life-saving medical equipment and medicines needed in the treatment of Covid patients, police in Kanpur have arrested two persons and seized huge quantities of medical equipment from their possession.

The police, on Wednesday, conducted raids on a tip-off and arrested Ashish a.k.a Sonu Gupta of Nath Nagar and Rakesh Mehra of Gilish Bazar area and seized 250 oximetres, 98 oxygen flow-meters, 226 digital thermometers, 34 mercury thermometers, 875 Covid test cards and four oxygen masks from their possession.

DCP crime branch Salman Taj Patil said: "There were specific inputs that Ashish a.k.a Sonu Gupta and Rakesh Mehra were selling life-saving medical equipment needed in Covid treatment at premium-at prices six to seven times higher than the printed rates. A joint team of the crime branch and Colonelganj police station raided the hideouts of the two and made the recovery."

Patil said that the raiding team has been rewarded with a cash prize of Rs 5,000.

"We will book those arrested under relevant sections of IPC and send them to jail," the DCP added.

The police crime branch had recently busted a racket with the arrest of four persons involving two nursing staff of Lala Lajpat Rai (LLR) hospital and a private hospital worker, who were selling Remdesivir injection vials in the black market.

The police had, earlier, seized 265 Remdesivir injection vials from the possession of three people including a Haryana resident in the city.