VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, June 18: The Jharkhand High court has quashed criminal proceedings against Saraikela-Kharsawan-based doctor Om Prakash Anand who had a fight with the health minister of Jharkhand Banna Gupta during the peak period of Covid 19 in May 2021.
The court of Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi quashed the criminal proceedings instituted by the health department under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
“The petitioner has been implicated in several cases for raising voice against the working culture of the Health Department of the State of Jharkhand and if for raising a genuine voice and that too, at the time when the entire world was facing the pandemic, the petitioner has been prosecuted and there is no hesitation to the Court in coming to the conclusion that this prosecution is malicious,” the court order reads.
On being contacted, Om Prakash Anand said that he was confident to get justice from the court.
“This is one of the many FIRs which the Jharkhand High Court has quashed. I was implicated in several false cases because I dared to expose corruption and highhandedness of the health department. I will not speak much at this moment. There are other false cases which I am fighting,” said Anand.
The court said it has no hesitation to say that the “prosecution is malicious in nature against the petitioner.” The court quashed the entire criminal proceeding in connection with NDPS case 20/2021 including the cognizance taken by Sessions Judge of Saraikela-Kharsawan on June 8, 2021.
The health department lodged an FIR against him under sections 22(A) of the NDPS Act and sections 28(A), 27(B)(ii) and 27(D) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. Om Prakash Anand runs 111 Save Life Hospital at Adityapur.
That inquiry was initiated on the complaint of one Sweta Sah, Jyotsna Jha, Preeti Kumari on May 19, 2021. It was alleged that from his hospital and ambulance a huge quantity of medicine was seized. The department said that these were kept illegally and the storage of such medicines without a drug license is an offence under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. In the complaint the department further said that there were some other medicines which come under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act, were recovered.
Om Prakash Anand challenged the criminal proceedings before the High Court. The state government could not prove those allegations. His lawyer referred Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010 and said that Om Prakash Anand was entitled to keep those medicines for emergency purposes.
