India / Delhi court dismisses plea for FIR against Ramdev over COVID-19 'cure' claim

NEW DELHI: A Delhi Court Thursday dismissed a plea seeking lodging of an FIR against yoga guru Baba Ramdev and others for allegedly cheating people by falsely claiming that his firm Patanjali has found a cure for COVID-19, noting one case has already been registered.

Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Anand observed that the content of the application were similar to one based on which an FIR has already lodged in Jaipur.

The order was passed after the Delhi police filed a status report stating that an FIR has already been lodged under Section 420 (cheating) of IPC at Police Station Jyoti Nagar, Jaipur, Rajasthan on a similar plea.

It further said that "AYUSH Ministry had allowed the sale of 'Coronil' as an immunity booster and in case of any grievance, the Complainant should approach the Ministry."

"The press conference during which 'Coronil' was launched was held at Haridwar, Uttrakhand which was beyond the jurisdiction was Delhi Police," the police told the court.

Taking note of police submission, the judge said that "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."

The application, filed by advocate Tushar Anand, claimed that Ramdev and other persons "only had permission to make/produce an immunity booster and they are falsely representing/making a false claim in the media that they have found a cure for COVID-19".

The plea had sought lodging of the FIR under various sections including 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous), 420 (cheating) and 504 (intentionally insults with intent to provoke break of public peace).

The accused persons are taking undue advantage of media and have made a false representation to the people who will buy the product since, the above said accused persons are claiming it to cure the said the deadly corona virus.

"By virtue of this the accused persons in a pre planned hatched conspiracy with mala fide intentions to cause wrongful loss to the public at large by making such mis-representations and with intention to cause wrongful gain to themselves and also producing a product for which they never claimed/received a license by the concerned authorities," the plea had said.