BENGALURU: Central Crime Branch (CCB) police busted a racket involving the manufacture of cheap, low-quality masks being sold as N95 masks at high prices. In all, 12,300 masks were seized and one person, Asghar, was arrested in this connection.
Police said they received credible information that low-quality masks were branded as N95 masks and distributed from a godown in HRBR Layout in Kalyan Nagar. A police team raided the godown belonging to ZIS Engineering on Monday.
“It was found that low-quality masks were ready to be distributed to retailers. Investigations revealed that the accused took advantage of the fact that a lot of people were buying masks due to the COVID-19 scare. They were selling low-quality masks as N95 masks, in all worth Rs 20 lakh,” the police said.
“The probe revealed that the accused had already sold around 70,000 of these masks for Rs 1.05 crore. They made masks with normal cloth and placed an N95 seal on them and sold them at high prices,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Patil said.