CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has fixed December 13 as the date to consider admission of a criminal miscellaneous case filed by Siba Prasanna Jena, the main accused of the spurious anti-COVID drugs trade, challenging the FIR registered against him by the State Crime Branch.
A single judge bench of Justice Sashikanta Mishra has also stayed proceedings in the case pending in the Court of Special Judge-cum-Sessions Judge, Cuttack till next date.
Advocate Satya Ranjan Mulia argued the case on behalf of Jena, the 48-year-old managing director of Medilloyd Medicament Private Limited, a Cuttack-based pharma distributor. The State drugs control squad had seized around 170 boxes containing around 17,000 allegedly fake Favipiravir tablets from the firm on June 10. The medicine is prescribed for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
A special task force of State Crime Branch took over the investigation on June 14 and arrested Jena on June 24. He has since been in judicial custody.
The Cuttack based firm had allegedly procured the spurious Favipiravir tablets from a Noida-based company in the middle of the COVID pandemic this year and was the main distributor of the fake drugs, the STF probe had revealed.
Accordingly, the Crime Branch had registered an FIR against Jena under different sections of Indian Penal Code and Drugs and Cosmetic Act 1940.