The Delhi High Court has granted bail to four men arrested for allegedly hoarding and selling drugs used to treat Covid-19 patients at exorbitant rates during the second wave of the pandemic.
The court said that although the men are accused of a "nefarious and depraved offence", taking into account the fact that the evidence is primarily documentary in nature and is already in the custody of the police, it was of the opinion that no useful purpose would be served in prolonging their incarceration.
“It is settled law that the magnitude of the offence cannot be the only criterion for denying bail. The object of bail is to secure the presence of the accused at the trial. The object of bail is neither punitive nor preventative and the person who has not been convicted should be held in custody pending trial only to ensure his attendance at trial, and to ensure that the evidence is not tampered with and the witnesses are not threatened,” Justice Subramonium Prasad said.
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The accused, Mohan Kumar Jha, Mohd Shoiab Khan, Pushkar Chandrakant Pakhale and Aditya Gautam, were in custody for the past seven months. They were granted bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each, with two sureties, and directed not to leave the national capital without the court's permission.
The court also directed the accused to report to the police station concerned thrice a week and not to tamper with the evidence or contact any witnesses.
According to the prosecution, during the second wave of Covid-19 in April, the crime branch police officials received inputs of illegal hoarding and supply of life-saving medicines, including remdesivir, to treat coronavirus patients.
They were arrested while supplying the medicines to a contact near Batra Hospital and were arrested as they were unable to produce a prescription or bill for the same.
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The police said that at the time of the arrest, empty vials, vial caps and a batch coding machine which was apparently used for the production of fake remdesivir labels were also recovered from one of them.
The accused sought bail on the grounds that they were lodged in judicial custody for the past seven months and that their imprisonment served no purpose as a chargesheet was already filed.
The bail pleas were opposed by prosecutor Amit Chadha, who contended that a coordinated nexus of these individuals was operating to dupe innocent and desperate people whose family members were ill and these persons exploited the gullibility of innocent persons by selling fake remdesivir injections at exorbitant prices.
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