No bail for man who sold counterfeit black fungus injections

A special court in Kanpur has rejected the bail application of Madhuram Bajpai a.k.a Sumant, who has been charged with black marketing of counterfeit Liposomal Amphotericin B Injection Brand, Amphinex, used in the treatment of Black Fungus.

The bail application was rejected by Special judge, Drugs and Cosmetic Act court, Kanpur Nagar, Vikas Goel.

The accused claimed in his bail application that on May 27, 2021, the case was not registered against him but against Gyanesh Kumar and Prakash Mishra and that he had been implicated in the case due to business rivalry.

Since police did not recover anything from his possession and as one of the co-accused, Prakash Mishra, had already been released on bail, therefore the court should also grant him bail, he pleaded.

Additional district government counsel (ADGC) Sanjay Jha, while opposing his bail, stated that the Gwaltoli police had arrested Gyanesh Kumar Sharma and Prakash Mishra and recovered 68 Liposomal Amphotericin B Injection Brand Amphinex and a sum of Rs 1.80 lakh from the dashboard of the car.

During investigations, they had admitted before the police that the recovered injections had been supplied by Pankaj Agarwal, Madhuram Bajpai and Shubham Tiwari.

Drug Inspector Seema Singh who collected the samples from the spot, had recovered 68 injections of Liposomal Amphotericin B Injection Brand Amphonex which the accused used to supply to kin of the needy patients, the prosecution told the court.

The ADGC further stated that the government lab, after testing the samples of the injection, had declared them as counterfeit injections.

The court stated in its order, "Selling counterfeit injections during a crisis is a heinous offence against humanity. This court is not bound to follow the order of the other court. Since the bail application of Gyanesh Kumar Sharma, and Vijay Kumar was rejected, therefore, the bail application of Madhuram Bajpai is also being rejected as there no appropriate ground to release him on bail."