Mumbai: The sessions court has refused to grant bail to Sameer Khan, involved in illegal sale of covid drug Remdesivir without license during the pandemic observing that he may tamper with the prosecution case.
Khan had moved the bail plea on the ground of the parity as another accused in the case namely Kishor Gupta has been recently granted bail by the Bombay high court. Meanwhile, Khan’s previous bail was rejected by the sessions court but he has moved the second bail plea only after Gupta was granted bail and also on the ground of long incarceration
The sessions judge Dr Abhay Avinash Joglekar refused to give him any benefit of parity observing that he is not entitled for the benefit of parity. Besides, the court said the charges invoked against him provides for Life imprisonment. Hence the benefit of long incarceration be given only when the accused has undergone half of the prescribed punishment.
As per the prosecution case, during the surge of covid pandemic, the officers of Cipla Limited, a Pharmaceutical Company engaged into the production and sale of covid drug Remdesivir, came to know that certain some people representing themselves as authorized distributors of the said covid drug were selling the said medicines without authorizations and license.
It was further revealed that the accused were accepting online orders and accepting amounts against the same and are cheating the general public. Thus, the offence was registered with the cyber police.
The police nabbed Khan for the crime. It was alleged that Khan had received funds gathered from the online orders in his account. He had also allegedly asked Gupta to open the account for the transactions related to sale of these drugs.
Khan however, pleaded that he is a victim of the circumstance and his family is suffering because of his detention for the last three years. The court however, has refused to accept these grounds and rejected his bail plea.
