Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
Subramonium Prasad

DECISION

Subramonium Prasad, J.

1. These petitions under Section 439 Cr.P.C. have been filed for grant of bail to the petitioners in FIR No. 70/2021 dated 23.04.2021, registered at Police Station Crime Branch, Delhi for the offences punishable under Sections 420/188/120B/34 IPC and Sections 3/7 of the Essential Commodities Act and Section 3 of the Epidemic Disease Act. All the said petitions have a common prayer, i.e. to enlarge the accused persons on regular bail.

2. The facts, in brief, leading to the filing of the instant petitions are as under:

a) Briefly summarised allegations in the FIR No. 70/2021 are that during the second wave of COVID-19 in the month of April 2021, the Duty Officer, PS Crime Branch, Delhi received inputs of the illegal holding and supply of life saving medication to treat COVID-19. On receipt of a secret tip at 02:00 PM, the Assistant Sub-Inspector, PS Crime Branch was informed that Remdesivir injections, a drug which was in high demand and less supply to treat COVID-19, were going to be unauthorizedly handed over by two individuals, namely, Mohan Kumar Jha (petitioner in BAIL APPLN. 1983/2021) and Mohd. Shoiab Khan (petitioner in BAIL APPLN. 3268/2021) near Batra Hospital, M.B. Road, Sangam Vihar, Delhi on the evening of 23.04.2021, and they would be travelling on a light yellow colour scooty bearing registration No. DL7SCE0534. Acting on the secret tip, the ASI reached near Batra Hospital around 05:15 PM and made arrangements to barricade the roads near Batra Hospital and assembled a team with two private cars, laptop, printer, IO kit bag, entry register along with a secret informer. The ASI tried to convince the passersby to become independent witnesses but everyone declined justifying their own problems. At around 07:00 PM, a light yellow colour scooty bearing registration No. DL7SCE0534 was spotted near the Batra hospital on which two persons were travelling, the accused-Mohd. Shoiab Khan (petitioner in BAIL APPLN. 3268/2021) was riding the scooty and accused-Mohan Kumar Jha was the pillion rider. The secret informer indicated to the ASI that they were the two persons who were unauthorizedly going to supply the Remdesivir injections near the Batra Hospital. On getting the signal, the ASI apprehended both the accused persons-Mohan Kumar Jha and Mohd. Shoiab Khan, and on frisking them a white colour bag was seized from the accused-Mohan Kumar Jha in which about 10 vials of Remdesivir injections were found. When asked as to where from they procured the Remdesivir injections and for the doctor's prescription, licence or any other bill that could substantiate its possession with them, both the accused were unable to provide any satisfactory answers. On further questioning, it was revealed that the accused persons had purchased these vials of Remdesivir to sell it on a higher margin to the desperate family members of patients ailing from COVID-19. Both the accused persons-Mohan Kumar Jha and Mohd. Shoiab Khan were arrested on 23.04.2021 and taken into custody, and their mobile phones were seized.

b) During investigation, the CDRs of the arrested accused persons were analysed and a number of Whatsapp chats were seen which showed involvement of other accused persons, who were supplying presumably spurious and adulterated Remdesivir injections. Accused-Mohan Kumar Jha was remanded ........