SC sets aside detention order of accused in fake Remdesivir case

The Supreme Court has set aside an order for detention of a Jabalpur man accused of procuring fake Remdesivir injections during the second wave of Covid-19.

A bench of justices D Y Chandrachud and Dinesh Maheshwari said the failure of the central and the Madhya Pradesh governments to communicate the rejection of the representation of the accused in a time bound manner vitiates the order of detention.

The top court said that its earlier judgement which quashed the detention order of the main accused, doctor Sarabjit Singh Mokha, would be applicable in the matter.

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"No distinguishable feature has been indicated in the counter affidavit which has been filed in these proceedings. As a matter of fact, the appellant was in the pharmaceutical wing of the hospital which was conducted by the appellant in the previous case decided by this Court," the bench said.

Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the appellant, tendered a tabulated chart reflecting the similarities both in respect of the grounds of detention and the findings which weighed with this Court in allowing the earlier appeal which arose from the judgment of the High Court in the case of Mokha.

"We allow the appeal and set aside the order of detention dated May 11, 2021 as well as the consequential extensions which were granted on July 8, 2020 and September 30, 2021," the bench said in a recent order.

The top court had earlier quashed the order for detention of a Jabalpur doctor accused of procuring fake Remdesivir injections in connivance with Chourasia during the second wave of Covid-19.

The plea, filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, submitted that the alleged grounds mentioned in the detention order do not merit the invocation of the provisions of the National Security Act (NSA), 1980. It contended that to attract the provisions of the NSA, the detaining authority ought to have recorded the cause which indicates as to how the accused has affected the public order and threatened the social security.

Till date no ground for keeping the petitioner under prolonged detention and invoking the NSA has been made out, it said.

Moreover, the investigating authority has not placed any evidence/proof on record which merits the invocation of the provisions of the NSA and despite that the petitioner has been in custody with effect from May 10, 2021, the plea said.

While quashing the order for detention of the Jabalpur doctor, the top court had said the state government delayed decision on his representation and failed to communicate the outcome.

The Supreme Court had passed the order on an appeal filed by Mokha, Director of City Hospital, Jabalpur, challenging the August 24, 2021 order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court which rejected his petition under Article 226 of the Constitution against a detention order passed against him under Section 3(2) of the National Security Act.

The allegation against Mokha was that in connivance with Chourasia and certain others, he procured fake Remdesivir injections, which were administered to patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to make illegal profits, thereby endangering the life of the general public.

The top court had invalidated the order of detention on two grounds -- the unexplained delay on part of the Madhya Pradesh government in deciding the representation of the appellant and the failure of the central and state governments to communicate the rejection of the representation to the appellant in a timely manner.

The stringent NSA was invoked against four people, including Mokha, in separate cases related to Remdesivir, in high demand during the pandemic. The cases relate to sale of fake Remdesivir injections and black-marketing of the anti-viral drug in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh.

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