The bench of Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad of Jharkhand High court on Thursday slammed Jharkhand government and the RIMS administration for not being serious about procurement and installations of medical equipment at RIMS at a time when people are losing their lives due to Covid-19.

The court orally observed that when people are dying, RIMS and State government are holding meetings. The court said that the government and RIMS seem to be not serious.

The court observed this while hearing a suo motu PIL regarding arrangements of the State government to fight Covid-19 pandemic. During the hearing senior lawyer Akashdeep representing RIMS informed the court that the process of the procurement of necessary medical equipment has been completed. But, the court was not satisfied with the progress. While the court deferred hearing of the matter next week, it directed RIMS administration to complete technical works for installation. The court directed RIMS to sit together with the government to resolve any issue related to procurement of equipment.

In another development the court hearing Covid 19 related PIL directed the ADG of CID for his physical appearance before the court. In the previous hearing the bench had directed the State Government to take necessary action to stop and investigate black-marketing of Remdesivir, the lifesaving medicine for covid 19 patients, besides any other medicine or thing needed in the treatment of covid 19.

Notably, some of the cases of black marketing were reported in Jharkhand including one Rajeev Kumar Singh of Ranchi who was arrested for illegally selling Remdesivir at exorbitant price.

About the investigation made by police so far in this case; the court orally observed that it seems a senior police official was also involved in this. The court said that investigation reveals state police are only focusing on small fishes. On this the court directed the ADG of CID for his physical appearance in the next hearing.

Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan further informed the court that in the oxygen cylinder theft case of Hazaribagh district FIR has been lodged against two persons.