New Delhi, Nov 21 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Friday quashed the criminal proceedings initiated against the Gautam Gambhir Foundation and its trustees in connection with allegations of unauthorised stocking and distribution of COVID-19 medicines during the second wave of the pandemic.
A single-judge Bench of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna allowed the petitions filed by the Foundation, former cricketer and current India head coach Gautam Gambhir, and other family members, setting aside both the criminal complaint and the summoning orders issued by the Metropolitan Magistrate.
“Complaint case quashed,” Justice Krishna declared while pronouncing the verdict. The detailed judgment is awaited.
The proceedings had been earlier stayed in September 2021, but were revived earlier this year after an interim protection was vacated.
The petitioners argued that the Foundation had procured medicines from authorised vendors and distributed them free of cost in medical camps at the height of the pandemic. They said that there was not a single allegation of sale, profiteering, or diversion of essential drugs, adding that the initiative was purely charitable in nature.
It was submitted that the criminal complaint proceeded on misplaced assumptions despite the Delhi High Court’s direction that the Drug Controller must prosecute only those whose conduct led to blocking or choking the supply chain of COVID-19 medicines.
The prosecution, based on an inquiry conducted by the Drugs Control Department, alleged that the Foundation and its members procured Favipiravir (FabiFlu) and other COVID-19 drugs without the requisite licences, in violation of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
The Drugs Controller had earlier informed the High Court that the Foundation was “guilty of unauthorised procurement”.
The trial court subsequently took cognisance and summoned Gambhir, his wife Natasha, his mother Seema, and the Foundation’s officials.
In 2021, when the Foundation approached the Supreme Court challenging these proceedings, the apex court refused to interfere and directed it to seek relief from the Delhi High Court, remarking: “People were running helter-skelter for medicines. Suddenly, a trust says it will distribute drugs. This is not done.”
The Delhi High Court ruling is expected to have a favourable bearing on the parallel prosecutions launched against the then two Aam Aadmi Party MLAs, Praveen Kumar and Imran Hussain, over similar allegations of stocking COVID-19 medicines during the crisis.
–IANS
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