‘Projected themselves as messiahs’: HC tells Maha to scrutinise roles of MLA, actor in getting Covid-19 drug

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the Maharashtra government to scrutinise the role that local Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddique and actor Sonu Sood played in procurement and supply of antiCovid19 drugs to citizens following their SOS calls and appeals on social mediaThe high court also observed that these people celebrities projected themselves as some kind of messiahs without verifying if the drugs were spurious or if the supply was legalA bench of Justices S P Deshmukh and G S Kulkarni issued the direction to the Maharashtra government after state Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni told the HC that it had registered a criminal case at the Mazgaon metropolitan court against a charitable trust BDR Foundation and its trustees for supplying antiCovid19 drug Remdesivir to Siddique even though the trust did not have requisite licenceKumbhakoni said that Siddique had been merely diverting the drug to citizens who had approached him so no action had been taken against him yetHe further said that Sonu Sood had received the drugs from several pharmacies located inside the private Lifeline Care Hospital in Goregaon Pharma company Cipla had supplied Remdesivir to these pharmacies and inquiry into it was still going on Kumbhakoni saidHe was responding to previous orders of the high court passed while hearing a bunch of public interest litigations PILs on several issues related to the management of drugs and resources required to tackle the Covid19 pandemicThe HC had directed the state government and the Centre to probe how celebrities and politicians had managed to procure and distribute anticoronavirus drugs to the public when the supply of the same was scarce and was supposed to be allocated to states by the Union governmentOn Wednesday the HC asked if initiating action against the charitable trust was adequate and should the state not look further into the roles played by Siddique Sood and any other celebrities concernedWe would expect the state government to scrutinise their actions We want you to very seriously examine their roles the high court saidSince both were dealing directly with the public was it possible for the public to ascertain the quality or source of these drugs it saidThe HC referred to a news story published on Wednesday which said that a private housing society in the city had said that it had probably been cheated and provided spurious antiCovid19 vaccines by those who had carried out a vaccination drive for its residentsWe dont want any such incidents Such things should not happen because of the existence of a parallel system These are situations with which we are not too happy the high court saidThese people celebrities projected themselves as some kind of messiahs without verifying if the drugs were spurious or if the supply was legal In both these cases we expect the State Govt to scrutinise their actions the HC saidThe high court will next hear the plea further on June 25This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever