KATHMANDU, April 8: District Administration Office Kathmandu has permitted the police to keep Shanker Group vice chairperson Sulav Agrawal in custody for another seven days for further investigation.

During the preliminary interrogation, Agrawal has denied the allegations against him, according to police sources.

If the allegations leveled against him proved, he will be sentenced to seven years in prison, according to police. He has been kept at Metropolitan Police Circle, Durbarmarg.

Agrawal was arrested on Tuesday on the charge of black marketing in thermal scanners which were imported from China two weeks ago.

Agrawal, who is the honorary consul of Kyrgyzstan in Nepal, was caught red-handed by police in possession of 66 units of thermal scanner. At the time he was in a vehicle with special registration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A team from the Metropolitan Police Crime Division had arrested Agrawal from Balmandir, Naxal at 2 pm.

Agrawal was found selling the thermal guns—used for detecting body temperature- at Rs 16000, though the device is valued at Rs 3000-3500 in the local market.

Shanker Group – one of the biggest business conglomerates of Nepal – had imported a huge amount of medical supplies from the Chinese market last week.

Though the group imported the medical supplies from China, Agrawal said during police interrogation that he has collected the thermal guns from the domestic market.

Acting on a tip-off, police did a sting operation on Agrawal, posing as buyers. An unsuspecting Agrawal came on his special vehicle to Naxal on Tuesday. The police then caught him red-handed in possession of the thermal scanners.

He had come on a vehicle with registration number 209-HCC-1. Police have taken control of the vehicle.

According to SSP Sahakul Thapa, the chief of the MPCD, police are interrogating Agrawal.

The police also raided the house and office of Agrawal later on Tuesday.

Hand-held, non-contact infrared thermometers, or 'temperature guns', have emerged as a popular device around the world for screening people for fevers at this time of coronavirus outbreak.

Following the coronavirus outbreak globally, police have confiscated a huge amount of medical supplies from the market.

 
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