Mumbai: A Mumbai court has granted bail to a man who was in jail for the last three years for allegedly selling fake medicines during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Additional Sessions Judge (Dindoshi Court) Shrikant Bhosale, in the order passed on June 19, said that accused Sudeep Mukherjee is in jail since 2021 and the hearing of the case has not even started.
Given the chronic pendency, there is no possibility that the trial will be concluded in the near future, the judge said in the order, details of which were made available on Friday.
According to the police, Mukherjee purchased the fake medicine from Uttar Pradesh-based firm ABM Labs Pvt Ltd and then sold it by pasting stickers of Max Relief Healthcare, which is a fake company.
Police said that 'Favipiravir Tablets 400 mg' was printed on the package, but the medicine inside did not contain the mentioned medicines.
The prosecution said that the accused, after planting their own label, distributed the drugs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was Mukherjee's third attempt to get bail. His earlier applications were rejected by the same court.
In his latest plea, he sought bail on parity grounds and claimed that a co-accused with a similar role was granted bail by the Bombay High Court.
After hearing the arguments, the court ruled that there is a change in circumstances to consider the bail plea next.
The court said, therefore, the accused is entitled to bail on the same conditions as the High Court had imposed while granting bail to other accused in the case.
Additional Sessions Judge (Dindoshi Court) Shrikant Bhosale, in the order passed on June 19, said that accused Sudeep Mukherjee is in jail since 2021 and the hearing of the case has not even started.
Given the chronic pendency, there is no possibility that the trial will be concluded in the near future, the judge said in the order, details of which were made available on Friday.
According to the police, Mukherjee purchased the fake medicine from Uttar Pradesh-based firm ABM Labs Pvt Ltd and then sold it by pasting stickers of Max Relief Healthcare, which is a fake company.
Police said that 'Favipiravir Tablets 400 mg' was printed on the package, but the medicine inside did not contain the mentioned medicines.
The prosecution said that the accused, after planting their own label, distributed the drugs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was Mukherjee's third attempt to get bail. His earlier applications were rejected by the same court.
In his latest plea, he sought bail on parity grounds and claimed that a co-accused with a similar role was granted bail by the Bombay High Court.
After hearing the arguments, the court ruled that there is a change in circumstances to consider the bail plea next.
The court said, therefore, the accused is entitled to bail on the same conditions as the High Court had imposed while granting bail to other accused in the case.
