During a hearing, Advocate Rajesh Inamdar told the Bombay High Court’s bench that COVID-19 patients are approaching Bollywood celebrities and politicians for help on Twitter after they are not able to procure medicines. He presented several tweets of MLA Zeeshan Siddiqui and actor Sonu Sood who were distributing vials of Remdesivir within hours of such pleas. He mentioned that many other personalities were doing this as well.
As per a report in India Today, the court then questioned the Maharashtra government and the central government as to how these celebrities and politicians are able to acquire and distribute investigational drugs like remdesivir and tocilizubam at a time when the state continues to complain of a shortage in supply.
The Maharashtra government submitted notes to the court on how they had served show-cause notices to MLA Zeeshan Siddique and Sonu Sood’s NGO ‘Sood Charity Foundation’ but are yet to receive a response from them. The HC responded, “We aren’t impressed. By now you should have had recorded their (celebrities) statements. They don’t have any license.”
Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni of the HC said, “We are concerned about the lives of our citizens. There cannot be any mileage, popularity or any other kind of mileage from this. We are deeply pained if needy patients are being deprived of it. This is a sorry state of affairs.”
The bench further added, “Who will guarantee that drugs being given by these personalities are of proper quality. Allocation is by Union, the collection is by state, where is the window of collection by these personalities? That is our anxiety.”
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