3 people in India repainted fire extinguishers to look like oxygen cylinders and sold them to families of COVID-19 patients, police say
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Katie Warren
May 17, 2021, 12:11 IST
A medical worker carries an oxygen cylinder at a COVID-19 safe home care centre in Kolkata on May 14, 2021.Sudipta Das/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
In a police investigation, the accused scammers admitted they had already sold "many" of the fake canisters for about $180 each, police told the Times of India. As The New York Times reported, fire extinguishers could explode if filled with high-pressure oxygen.
"This guy should be charged with homicide," Mukesh Khanna, a local charity volunteer who filed a police complaint about the scammers, told the Times. "He was playing with lives."
The alleged fire extinguisher scam was discovered after Khanna, who volunteers for an NGO that provides free oxygen cylinders to COVID-19 patients, complained to police that a company called Varsha Engineering in Alipur, in the state of Delhi, was overcharging for oxygen, per the Times of India. Police then raided the business and discovered the scheme, seizing 532 fire extinguishers, spray-paint cans, electric grinders used to remove the red paint from the extinguishers, and about $675 in cash.
As India battles a deadly second coronavirus wave, virus-related scams are proliferating, according to The New York Times. Police in New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have arrested more than 370 people in the past month alone on allegations of coronavirus-related scams, per the Times. People have been accused of everything from selling fake vials of remdesivir, a drug used to treat the virus, to stealing used funeral shrouds and reselling them as new.
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