Yoga guru and entrepreneur Baba Ramdev has filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking protection from criminal FIRs filed against him across various states regarding his controversial comments on the efficacy of evidence-based medicines in treating coronavirus disease (Covid-19). A bench comprising Justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh issued notices to the central government and the Indian Medical Association (IMA) in response to Ramdev's plea.
Ramdev has requested the consolidation of FIRs and the transfer of these cases to Delhi. He also sought to halt the proceedings in multiple cases against him and protection from coercive actions related to FIRs filed by the IMA's Patna and Raipur branches.
Ramdev's counsel argued that he is a public figure and expressed his viewpoint at a private event, asserting that the yoga guru has nothing against doctors and has the right to express his opinion regarding the effectiveness of various medical approaches.
The FIRs against Ramdev have been filed under various sections, including Section 188 (disobedience to a public servant's order), Section 269 (negligent acts likely to spread dangerous diseases), and Section 504 (intentional insult with the intent to provoke breach of the peace), among others, of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
What did Ramdev say?
A major controversy erupted in the middle of a raging Covid pandemic when a video showed Ramdev allegedly disparaging modern medicines, claiming that medicines such as Remdesivir and Fabiflu, approved by the Drugs Controller General of India, had failed to treat Covid-19 patients.
{{/usCountry}}A major controversy erupted in the middle of a raging Covid pandemic when a video showed Ramdev allegedly disparaging modern medicines, claiming that medicines such as Remdesivir and Fabiflu, approved by the Drugs Controller General of India, had failed to treat Covid-19 patients.
{{/usCountry}}In the 140-second long video, the yoga guru was seen reading out from his phone, “Allopathy is a stupid science. Firstly, hydroxychloroquine failed, the remdesivir failed… plasma therapy effectiveness is now banned, the steroids have failed. Even Fabiflu and Ivermectin have also failed.”
“Everyone might not agree upon what I am going to say next but lakhs of people have died due to intake of allopathic medicines. More people have died due to allopathic medicines than due to lack of medical oxygen or shortage of beds,” Ramdev was heard saying in the video.
His comments sparked outrage, and the IMA subsequently issued a legal notice to him.
In response to the legal notice, an FIR was registered against Ramdev in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, based on a complaint filed by the local IMA unit.
The complaint alleged that Ramdev had propagated false information and made threatening statements on social media regarding medicines used by the medical community, the Government of India, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and other frontline organizations in the treatment of Covid-19.
The complaint highlighted several social media videos in which Ramdev had allegedly made misleading statements about these medicines.