Amidst the ongoing war of words between Maha Vikas Aaghadi allies and Centre over Remdesivir and medical oxygen supplies to Maharashtra, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday accused Maharastra Police of harassing a Daman-based Remdesivir supplier for agreeing to supply a stock of the drug to the state on the request of BJP leaders.
Mumbai police summoned the director of Bruck Pharma, a Daman-based pharmaceutical manufacturing company, that manufactures Remdesivir for questioning about a huge quantity of the drug stored in Mumbai.
The person, who the police did not identify, was let go from the Vile Parle police station where he was questioned for about 45 minutes.
The police said the Remdesivir stockpile was going to be illegally flown out abroad by air cargo, though the export of the drug has been banned by the government.
“Four days ago, we had requested Bruck Pharma to supply a stock of Remdesivir vials to Maharashtra. They said they couldn’t until permissions were given. I spoke with Union Minister Mansukh Mandviya and got Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) permission. On Saturday around 9 pm, the police arrested him,” Fadnavis told reporters.
The former Maharashtra Chief Minister added that DCP Manjunath Singe told they had inputs that some exporters had 60,000 vials and they only wanted to verify the same. “We showed the police the permission letter. He (DCP) said it wasn’t communicated to them earlier,” the BJP leader added. He said that whatever happened was wrong. He also visited Singe’s office to discuss police action to summon the distributor of Remdesivir for inquiry.
However, Singe refuted the allegations that the distributor was arrested and said he was summoned just for an inquiry given the widespread black marketing of the antiviral medication.
