‘Do you have a license,’ Delhi High Court questions Gautam Gambhir for stocking and distributing medicines meant to treat Covid

Cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir on Tuesday earned the ire of Delhi High Court for procuring Covid-19 related prescription-only drugs like Fabiflu tablets from certain distributors and giving out the same free of cost to patients of his constituency alone. The court wanted to know how BJP MP Gautam Gambhir is able to distribute medicines being used to treat Covid-19 and procure them in large quantities. Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, representing the Delhi government, told the court that it is “highly irresponsible” if the same is happening.

A division bench of the Delhi High Court comprising Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli hit out at Gambhir, saying, “Are these not prescription drugs? How is anybody able to procure large quantities? Is he holding a license to deal in these drugs? Does this not require license or what?” The court added, “We had thought it would stop after that report. It is still continuing.” The bench was referring to the hearing of last week, during which too, the issue of Gautam Gambhir distributing prescription-only drugs had caught the attention of the High Court.

It is unlikely that Gautam Gambhir is in possession of any required permissions to procure large quantities of Covid-19 drugs and distribute them to people of his constituency. Earlier, when the issue had first caught the public eye, the BJP MP had said, “If a few 100 strips of tablets obtained from a distributor are being given for free, then, can it be called hoarding? Is my obtaining a few strips of Fabiflu causing the shortage? You can call me wrong, but I’ll do everything to save lives of people.” Fabiflu, being used to treat mild to moderate Covid infections by some doctors, is in short supply in the capital.

Only a week ago, in a tweet, Gambhir had said, “People of East Delhi can get ‘Fabiflu’ from MP office (2, Jagriti Enclave) for FREE between 10-5. Kindly get Aadhar and prescription.” Subsequently, Gambhir put out two more tweets telling his constituents where they could procure Fabiflu tablets from. Gambhir, however, did point out that patients must bring prescription and their Aadhar cards for being able to procure Fabiflu tablets.

Congress and AAP leaders are up in arms against Gautam Gambhir. AAP leader Rajesh Sharma said, “This is the reason why Remdisivir, Fabiflu and other critical medicines are out of market. BJP leaders are hoarding these medicines. We have seen this in Gujarat also. Such leaders must be booked.” “Is this not criminal? An MP hoarding medicines and giving it as per his wishes. Why should he not give them to the hospital?” tweeted Somnath Bharti of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Delhi is among the cities worst hit by the deadly second wave of Covid-19. The capital’s positivity rate has breached the 32 per cent mark, and Arvind Kejriwal seems to have lost all control of the crisis.