The Delhi High Court has directed an investigation into allegations against two AAP MLAs as well as BJP MP Gautam Gambhir for hoarding and illegally stocking Covid medicines and drugs.
The bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh was hearing a plea seeking registration of FIRs against AAP MLAs Preeti Tomar and Praveen Kumar, and BJP MP Gambhir for hoarding the drugs and thereby denying access to said drugs to the public. The counsel for the petitioner, Adv. Virag Gupta argued that the acts of distributing medicines without setting up a camp indicates a nexus between Gambhir, chemists and doctors and this needs to be investigated.
Justice Sanghi orally remarked during the hearing that while Gambhir must have distributed medicine genuinely with the intention to help people but questioned whether this was responsible behaviour when people were suffering due to shortage of those medicines. “The way he has gone about it, he has done a disservice. This wasn’t the way certainly. Even with the best of intentions, they are malpractices. In our society we can’t permit this,” LiveLaw quoted Justice Sanghi as commenting.
Adv. Satya raised arguments against the Drug Controller that status report with respect to Tomar and Kumar did not disclose proper facts and hinted that the investigation done by Delhi Police was shoddy, reported LiveLaw.
The court, thus directed the Drug Controller to submit to the court what enquiry was done and what action can be taken against such persons. The court also directed Delhi law department to provide necessary expertise to the Drug Controller in this regard.
(to be updated with order)
Related:
A George Floyd moment in India, I can’t breathe: Delhi HC on oxygen shortage
Muslim Covid warriors save lives with oxygen ‘langars’, ambulance services
Black Fungus kills 90 in Maharashtra; shortage of drug to treat it