In it’s crackdown against the hoarding and illegal sale of face masks and hand sanitizers, the city crime branch has seized masks and hand sanitizers worth Rs 1 crore on Monday. During the raid, the crime branch has also seized 1000 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits worth Rs 20 lakh.
In the first raid, acting on a tip-off, the crime branch unit 10 detained three trucks near Marol Industrial estate in Andheri on Monday. During the search they found property worth Rs 76 lakh. According to the crime branch officer, they have seized 21,096 bottles of hand sanitizers worth Rs 41 lakhs, 6000 N95 masks and 1000 PPE kits.
In the second operation, Kandivali unit of the crime branch arrested two people, Amir Hussain Jafri (45) and Farhan Hussain Patel (27) for hoarding masks and hand sanitizers. During raids on their godown in Motilal Nagar in Goregaon, 1000 N95 masks and 181 litres of hand sanitizers, worth Rs 27 lakh were seized.
After the outbreak of novel coronavirus, the central government has included hand sanitizers and masks in essential commodities and capped its price and banned it's hoarding. The Maximum Retail Price (MRP) of hand sanitizer has been fixed to Rs 100 for per 200 ml bottle while MRP of 3 ply surgical mask and 2 ply surgical mask have been fixed to Rs 10 and Rs 8 respectively.
