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India: Court tells Maharastra to probe how actor Sonu Sood, politician procured anti-Covid drugs

Mumbai - Only central government authorised to distribute anti-Covid medicines to states

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The Bombay high court directed the Maharashtra government to probe the supply of anti-Covid drugs by Congress legislator Zeeshan Siddique and actor Sonu Sood at a time when its availability was scarce and only the central government was authorised to distribute it to states.

“These people (celebrities and politicians) project themselves as some kind of messiahs without verifying if the drugs were spurious or if the supply was illegal,” a division bench of the court said while hearing public interest litigation relating to improper Covid-19 management in Maharashtra.

“It is very easy for anyone to go to social media and say that I am the person to come for your help. It is not a good situation.”

The court wondered whether theirs was a parallel agency, especially when the state government was engaged in the procurement of the drugs. “We are leaving it to your conscience to examine the role of these two,” the court told advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni.

It had earlier asked the government to find out how some politicians and film personalities procured essential drugs and injections for treating people infected with Covid-19.

Kumbhakoni told the court that the actor had got the drugs from a pharmacy inside the Lifeline Care Hospital in Goregaon, which obtained it from drugmaker Cipla. The government was still probing the incident, he said.

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