A petition in the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, 5 May, sough registration of an FIR against those allegedly threatening Adar Poonawala, CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII), which manufactures the Covishield vaccine.
The plea, filed by Advocate Datta Mane, seeks further directions to the Pune Police to provide ‘Z plus’ security to Poonawalla, his family members and protect SII’s assets/properties under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
The plea comes on the heels of Poonawalla’s interview with The Times on 2 May where he alleged that he had been receiving threats in India and said that he and his family have left the country and were in London after unprecedented “pressure and aggression” over the demands for the COVID-19 vaccine.
“I don’t want to be in a situation where you are trying to do your job and just because you can’t supply the needs of X, Y or Z, you really don’t want to guess what they are going to do,” he said, adding, “Everything falls on my shoulders, but I can’t do it alone,” he told The Times.
In his plea, Advocate Datta Mane states that Poonawalla and his family are “life savers of India.”
The petitioner further claimed that the ‘Y Security’ protection given to Poonawalla after he left the country was an eyewash.
"If their lives and properties of the serum institute are not protected, it will lead to a chaotic situation about vaccination and will ultimately lead to loss of lakhs of lives."
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)