Complaint in Delhi Court seeks registration of FIR against Patanjali for ‘false claim’ of cure for COVID-19

A complaint has been filed before a Delhi Court, seeking registration of an FIR against owners of Patanjali Ayurved Limited for making a "false claim" in the media that they have found a cure for the Novel Coronavirus, with intention to cause "wrongful gain" to themselves, legal news website LiveLaw.in has reported.

The complaint has been filed under section 156(3) of CrPC by advocate Tushar Anand before the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala House Court and it is to be listed on Friday.

On June 23, Patanjali Ayurved had launched 'Coronil and Swasari', claiming that the medicines showed "100% favourable results" for curing Corona virus during clinical trials.

Later in the day, the Ministry of AYUSH clarified that that facts of the claim and details of the stated scientific study are not known to it. The government further asked the company to stop making such claims and to submit the alleged medicines for government verification.

The Petitioner has contended that by virtue of their claims pertaining to the said medicine "Coronil", Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev, Acharya Balkrishna, Swami Muktanand and Swami Shankerdev conspired to spread infection of disease dangerous to life by misrepresenting & alluring their innocent followers/ consumers to buy the above said medicine.

It is stated that the police has failed to register an FIR against the accused persons for committing offences under section 120-B read with 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous), 420 (cheating) and 504 (intentionally insults with intent to provoke break of public peace), and provisions of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act and Drugs & Magic Remedies Act, despite the clear mandate of Lalita Kumari v. Govt of UP & Ors., 2014 2 SCC 1.

It is submitted that the police cannot avoid their duty of registering the FIR if cognizable offence is disclosed. Registration of FIR is mandatory under Section 154 of the Code, if the information discloses commission of a cognizable offence and no preliminary inquiry is permissible in such a situation as held by the apex court in the above case.

A complaint against the company owners, Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev (Founder) and Acharya Balkrishna (MD, CEO), has also been filed before a court in Muzaffarpur, Bihar.

Recently, the Uttarakhand HC issued notice to the Central government on a PIL filed against Patanjali Ayurveda for making false claims about the medicine.