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Bruck Pharma: Why Is Devendra Fadnavis So Interested?

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2021-04-19 08:05:07

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

It was highly inappropriate on part of former chief minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis and some other Maharashtra BJP leaders to storm a police station in Mumbai and interfere with ongoing police investigation. The police had called the director of Bruck Pharma (a pharma company that makes remdesivir, a drug used to treat Covid infection), Rajesh Dokania, for questioning as it had intelligence input that the firm was going to airlift the drug for export to other countries despite a ban on exporting the drug.

But Fadnavis, along with Praveen Darekar and Prasad Lad went to the BKC police station in Mumbai where Dokania was being questioned by DCP Zone VII Manjunath Singe. The trio barged into Singe's office and Fadnavis engaged in a heated argument with the senior police officer over why he had called Dokania, why he was detained and being questioned. Being a former chief minister, Fadnavis should have respected due process and should have allowed the police to investigate the matter. But he chose to use political pressure to get Dokania released.

The matter seems to be another tiff in the ongoing war between the BJP and the Maharashtra Vikar Agadhi government headed by old BJP ally turned foe Shiv Sena. It so transpired that the BJP leaders were coordinating with Bruck Pharma to get remdesivir supplies for the state. The MVA thought that the party was procuring the drug to get into the good books of citizens. Since it is illegal for anyone other than the state government to procure the drug, it is quite possible that the police called Dokania for questioning to get more information on the matter.

But whatever the reason, the behavior of Fadnavis was not that of a responsible politician. Instead of storming the police station, he could have used other means to put the facts before the police and the MVA government to prove that Bruck Pharma was not exporting remdesivir but would have actually supplied it to Maharashtra. Further, if BJP leaders were interested in procuring remdesivir for the state from the pharma company, they should have coordinated with the state government instead of acting on their own. 

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