Police nab one with 10 lakh masks from Sano Bharyang

KATHMANDU, March 18: Police have arrested one person with 10 lakhs units of surgical facemasks from Sano Bharyang of Swoyambhu on Wednesday.

A team of Metropolitan Police Crime Division arrested Yubaraj Neupane of Gorkha in possession of 100 thousand units of facemasks.

The police have launched a crackdown down on mask black marketeers after the public complained of the artificial shortage of the surgical masks created by traders.

The same team had confiscated 1,600 bottles of sanitizer from the Suraj Arcade and 14,000 pieces of masks from several places in the Kathmandu Valley.

The demand for masks has increased in the market as the fear of a possible outbreak of the COVID-19 – that has spread to 159 countries and territories infecting 184,975 people and claiming 7,529 lives since Dec 31 last year – grows among the public.

As a result, the people are panicky buying essential supplies including protective masks and hand sanitizers.

Nepal has confirmed one only case of COVID-19 so far.

On Monday, the police seized 600,000 sets of masks from Rohit Shrestha’s house in Satungal.

Police also seized 1, 68,000 masks from Kapan and 78,000 from Dallu and arrested four persons including two Indian nationals on Saturday.

Photo: Samachar Dainik