Anushka Mansharamani
The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha MP Sujay Vikhe Patil for allegedly acquiring Remdesivir from New Delhi unofficially and surreptitiously.
The Bombay High Court further held that “Remdesivir is supposed to be distributed equally among needy patients.”
Although Remdesivir was procured unofficially, it saved a lot of lives of the poor and needy patients.
On this, the bench observed that the path chosen was wrong and held that “this cannot be a Robinhood situation”.
The court decided to order an investigation of the issue however noted that the local police and administration could not be trusted with an inquiry.
The court considered directing the CBI or the state CID to investigate the matter.
The bench called out the Ahmednagar district collector for “giving a clean chit” to the Member of Parliament.
The bench held, “A wrong path followed is ultimately termed as impropriety. Remdesivir injections are supposed to be used and distributed equally among all and not like this.”
The court further questioned how Remdesivir was procured in a surreptitious and unofficially manner.
The criticism came as the bench was hearing a petition filed by 4 agriculturists that sought criminal action against Vikhe Patil for the unauthorised procurement of Remdesivir from Delhi.
Lok Sabha MP Sujay Vikhe Patil had uploaded video recordings and photographs on his social media handle of the unloading boxes of Remdesivir in a chartered flight.
This flight had landed at the Shirdi airport and the Bombay High Court thereby asked for all the details of the chartered flights from the Shirdi airport in Ahmednagar district from April 10 to April 25.
The bench stated, “ We would not tolerate any excuse of any footage being lost or the details of the landing and take-off of private flights not available”
The matter is listed for further hearing on 3rd May.