The Jharkhand High Court on Friday expressed displeasure over the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Jharkhand Police for making Ranchi SP (Rural) Naushad Alam as prosecution witness in Remdesivir black-marketing case without approval and knowledge of the High Court.
The double bench of High Court comprising Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad directed ADG (Rail) Anil Palta to appear before the court in the next hearing to explain that under what circumstance Alam was made the witness of the case. Besides, the court also directed ADG of CID Prashant Singh and other officials of the investigation team to appear before the court.
The court gave the direction while hearing a PIL regarding black-marketing of Covid-19 lifesaving medicines. The high court is monitoring the investigation of Remdesivir black-marketing case. A special investigation team of CID is investigating the case under supervision of Palta.
The CID for about five days submitted the chargesheet against Rajeev Singh and Manish Sinha in the Remdesivir black-marketing case. Rajeev Singh, a resident of Kanke Road was arrested by Ranchi police in April for allegedly selling Remdesivir at high cost. Police had recovered Remdesivir from his possession. Another accused Manish Sinha is an employee of Shristhi Hospital.
Ranchi SP (Rural) landed in controversy as Singh confessed that he had arranged Remdesivir for Alam who wanted this medicine for a person named Guddu. The IPS officer however clarified that he wanted to save the life of a person and he had no intention to support Singh in doing black-marketing of the medicine.
Investigation revealed that Remdesivir was allotted for patients Shravan Kumar and Sudhir Minj admitted at Shristhi Hospital. But Manish Sinha passed on that allotted vial of Remdesivir to Rakesh Ranjan; owner of a medicine shop Medicine Plant. Singh procured Remdesivir from Rakesh Ranjan. Both Alam and Rakesh Ranjan were made prosecution witnesses.
Senior lawyer and president of Jharkhand Bar Council Rajendra Krishna, who is also the intervener in this case raised the issue during hearing and alleged that CID is not taking the court in confidence while submitting chargesheet.
This is the second occasion when the high court expressed displeasure over the conduct of Jharkhand Government and police regarding investigation.
Earlier when Palta was transferred from CID to Rail police; the high court had reprimanded the government and police stating that transfer of ADG in the middle of the investigation without prior information to the court. The court even orally observed that if the police continue with this attitude, then the court will be compelled to hand over the investigation to the CBI.
