Court orders probe against Gautam Gambhir for illegal procurement of Covid-19 drugs

The court has asked the Drug Control Authority in Delhi to submit an investigation report within a week while also ordering police to handover proof and materials to the drug authorities.

The court did acknowledge that Gambhir may have had “good intentions” but hoarding of drugs does not fall into the category of responsible behavior during a pandemic.

“Mr Gautam Gambhir may have done this with the best of interests. Our issue is, is it a responsible behaviour when everything is in short supply? Should he not have realised it will become in short supply for others? Many others must have suffered on this account?” the court said.

Earlier in the week, the court pulled Delhi Police for the “vague and whitewashed” inquiry into the allegations of hoarding of Covid-19 medicines by politicians. The court said it appeared that the police were not interested in bringing out the truth. “Just because some political figures are involved is no reason not to investigate,” it said.

The Delhi High Court has also taken notice of allegations against AAP MLAs Preeti Tomar and Praveen Kumar. In similar orders, the court asked the drug authority to submit reports within a week while asking police to handover evidence that it had gathered.

India is in the midst of a fierce second wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic, led partially by a double mutant variant discovered in the country. Even though the capital has seen cases abating, there are fears among health experts and media that the disease has already spread to rural areas, driving mass unreported deaths.