Court says since an FIR in this regard has already been registered at Jaipur, a second FIR was not necessary
The Patiala House Court yesterday (July 16) dismissed a plea seeking registration of an FIR against Baba Ramdev and the company Patanjali for allegedly making claims to cure COVID-19.
The order was passed by Metropolitan Magistrate Sumeet Anand on an application filed by advocate Tushar Anand, alleging that Baba Ramdev, along with the others associated with Patanjali Ayurveda have acted jointly in a pre-planned conspiracy to take undue advantage of their special status in the society by making false claims of having found a cure for COVID-19.
The complainant had alleged that Baba Ramdev and others have violated the provisions of Sections 270, 420, 504, 120B, 34 IPC, Section 33(E) (Misbranded Drugs) read with section 33(I) (Penalty for misbranded drugs) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 for the offence of “Misbranded Drugs”.
Further, it was alleged that the accused persons have also committed offence under Section 4 (Prohibition of misleading advertisements relating to drugs) and section 7 (penalty up to 6 months) of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954.
The Court was informed that an FIR had already been registered at Jaipur, hence the court referring to the Supreme Court’s order in Arnab Ranjan Goswami vs UOI observed: “Once there is already an FIR registered with respect to a cause of action, as raised by the complainant herein, which is under investigation, there is no occasion for this court to order registration of another FIR on the same cause of action, which will have the effect of registration of multiple FIRs against the same accused for the same cause of action in different states.”
Hence, the Court dismissed the application.
-India Legal Bureau