Plea in Bombay HC seeks 'Z+ security' for Adar Poonawalla; cites 'threats by CMs'

Seeking tighter security for Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla, a plea has been filed in the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, for Z+ security for the 40-year-old vaccine manufacturer. The plea, filed by Mumbai lawyer Datta Mane, cited 'threats to Poonawalla's life by CMs' as revealed by Poonawalla himself in an interview with British daily 'The Times'. Poonawalla has already been provided 'Y' security by the Centre, which has been termed an 'eyewash' by the plea.

Plea seeks Z+ security for Adar Poonawalla

The plea claims "If Mr Adar Poonalwalla is out of India due to fear to his life, then it will be Ship in Storm without its Captian. Mr Poonawalla and SII have become lifesavers of the Indian population, and hence the Government must protect them". Moreover, the plea states that Poonawalla's call data records (CDR) must be analysed to determine who threatened him.

Poonawalla claims 'threats'

In a recent interview to British daily 'The Times', Poonwalla claimed that he was getting 'threats' from top industrialists, politicians and CMs regarding vaccine orders. Citing that he was 'under tremendous pressure',  Poonwalla flew to London to 'to stay for an extended time' with his family, leading to an uproar in India amid a vaccine shortage. Later, Poonawalla clarified that he is scheduled to visit Pune shortly to review SII's progress after completing talks with UK partners in London.

India's vaccine shortage crisis

On April 19, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman approved an advance payment of Rs 4,567.50 crores to Serum Institute of India (SII) & Bharat Biotech (BBL) to ramp up vaccine production. SII has been approved Rs 3,000 crores while BBL has been approved Rs 1567.50 crores by the Finance Ministry to ramp up COVID-19 vaccine production to produce 100/million doses and 60 million/doses per month. Centre has already roped in three public sector companies - Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Ltd , Mumbai, Indian Immunologicals Limited, Hyderabad and Bharat Immunologicals & Biologicals Limited, Bulandshahr to ramp up their vaccine capacity and produce vaccine doses. Centre has also relaxed the age bar for vaccination from May 1 onwards allowing 18+ to be vaccinated, and states to procure doses from manufacturers directly. 

Both Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India (SII) have offered vaccines at RS 150/dose to Centre, but at Rs 300 and Rs 400 respectively to state governments. Soon enough, most state governments placed lakhs of orders with the two vaccine manufacturers, but are yet to receive their orders. States like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa, Jammu-Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Delhi have postponed their vaccination drive by two weeks atleast due to a shortage of vaccine doses. The Co-WIN portal which opened registration for those above 18 years, only allows registration as most states do not have stocks to schedule vaccination appointments.