Politicians, celebrities acting like messiah may end up giving spurious COVID drugs: Bombay High Court tells State to scrutinise such actions

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday expressed concern that people like Member of Legislative Assembly Zeeshan Siddiqui and Bollywood actor Sonu Sood "acting like messiah" may end up distributing spurious COVID drugs.

. A Bench of Justices SP Deshmukh and GS Kulkarni took strong exception to actions of the personalities and directed the Maharashtra government to examine their role at the earliest.

The Court observed that had those people not publicised themselves as messiahs, it would have been impossible for any person to know that they were "supplying" the drugs.

The Court also commented that these incidents by 'parallel agency' may also end up creating a public perception against the government's efforts.

"What is the public perception created? Any person may just come on social media, claim they can provide drugs to people like a parallel agency and completely unauthorised, when in reality it is the government which is taking all efforts to procure the drug. Tomorrow anyone will say on social media that government is not coming to your help, we are," Justice Kulkarni remarked.

. Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni informed the Court that investigations have been initiated against Sood, Siddiqui and their private trusts for procuring Remdesivir vials which are used for Covid patients.

During the course of investigation it was found that that Siddiqui was helping people with the aid of a trust named 'BDR foundation'. The trust, however, did not seem to have the required permission to supply the drugs.

In view of this, the State registered a criminal case with the Mazgaon Magistrate Court against the trust and its trustee Dheer Shah. The State also booked a few pharmaceutical companies and their directors, the Court was told.

. The Bench, however, noted that no case had been registered against the Siddiqui himself and the investigation against Sood and his Foundation was still ongoing.

"Except for these two personalities directly dealing with the citizens, was there any reasonable ground for citizens to know that drugs were available with either of the Trusts? These people projected themselves as some kind of messiahs without verifying if the drugs were spurious or if the supply was legal," Justice Kulkarni stated.

The Bench clarified that in both cases they expected the State Government to scrutinize their actions.

"We are leaving it to your conscience to examine role of these two and whatever you want to say in the affidavit please say so," the Court said.

. The Court was hearing clutch of petitions on issues surrounding COVID management which also included the lead petition which alleged improper management of COVID-19 medical treatment in Maharashtra.

The Court had in an earlier hearing sought an explanation from the Central and State governments on how Remdesivir which is scarce in supply, could be distributed through a parallel channel by political and film personalities.

.Cannot allow celebrities, politicians to derive mileage by distributing COVID drugs when needy patients are not getting it: Bombay High Court

Politicians, celebrities acting like messiah may end up giving spurious COVID drugs: Bombay High Court tells State to scrutinise such actions

Neha Joshi

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