'On 26 April, in what can only be described as inadvertent whistle-blowing, a dispute between three private companies over the distribution of antibody kits in India revealed that the centre had allowed the costs of COVID-19 antibody tests to be inflated by nearly 145 percent. In a judgment that favoured none of the companies, it was the Indian Council of Medical Research that suffered the most. The court disclosed that the ICMR offered to pay Rs 30 crore for five lakh test kits, at an inflated price that offered a profit of Rs 18.75 crore to the intermediary companies.
'A assistant sub-inspector deputed at Mumbai’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) has tested positive for COVID-19, the department informed the special NIA court on Saturday, April 25, while opposing the interim bail application filed by academic and civil rights activist Anand Teltumbde who was arrested on April 14 amid the rapidly spreading COVID-19 virus in the country. Despite the NIA’s disclosure that an officer was infected, a special NIA court rejected Teltumbde’s interim bail application and sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.
'Fifty IRS officers in a report suggested raising the tax rate to 40% for those with income above Rs 1 crore and levy of wealth tax for those with over Rs 5 crore annual income... The CBDT on Sunday said an inquiry is being initiated against 50 IRS officers of the I-T department who have penned an unsolicited report on revenue mobilisation to fund COVID-19 relief measures and made it public without permission.
'Safoora Zargar, a research scholar from Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university, spent her first day of Ramadan in the high-security Tihar jail in the Indian capital, New Delhi. The 27-year old, in the second trimester of her first pregnancy, was arrested on April 10 and subsequently charged under the stringent anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 2019 (UAPA), by the Delhi police. Zargar was associated with the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC), which organised weeks of peaceful protests in the capital against a citizenship law passed last December...'
'The Coimbatore police have arrested the founder of SimpliCity, a hyperlocal news portal, for two reports that highlighted shortcomings faced by government healthcare professionals and alleged corruption by some employees of the public distribution system (PDS), making this the first documented case of a media head being jailed during the COVID-19 and lockdown crisis by the authorities for critical reportage. Andrew Sam Raja Pandian was charged under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Epidemic Diseases Act after a complaint was filed by M.
'Patients labelled as ‘suspected Covid’ during admission to hospitals here are not being tested for the novel coronavirus even after death in a bid to dress up infection figures, charged opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday. He said at least 44 bodies of ‘suspected Covid’ patients have been released from the civic-run Nair Hospital — a dedicated Covid-19 facility now — without the coronavirus test. There are several such instances from other hospitals too, said Fadnavis, who tweeted details of the letter he’s sent to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray...'
'...South Asia’s low Covid-19 cases have led experts to offer several theories. One of them is the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine, used against tuberculosis. The BCG vaccination is universal in South Asia and has been connected, by some studies, to low instances of Covid-19. Similarly, some studies also show that heat could adversely affect the virus. Experts, however, advise caution on how much these two factors can be credited for low numbers in South Asia given what is known currently...
'The Delhi Police on Tuesday booked Jamia Millia Islamia students Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA, in a case related to communal violence in North East Delhi over the Citizenship Amendment Act in February, PTI reported. They also booked former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid under the Act...'
'Tension prevailed in Sattenapalle town in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur district after a man named Mohammed Ghouse (35) died on Monday after being questioned, and allegedly manhandled by police officers for venturing out during the lockdown. The incident took place at around 8 am, and people in the town are allowed to step out for essentials between 6 am and 9 am. Further, though Ghouse was out well within the designated time period, he was also reportedly buying medicines, which is allowed through the day. After Ghouse passed away, the residents of the town were taking his body in a vehicle.
'Yesterday, police in Srinagar summoned and questioned Ashiq, a correspondent with daily newspaper The Hindu, over a story he published that day on tensions between Kashmiris and the police, according to a statement by the Kashmir Press Club, an elected, representative body of journalists in Kashmir. The same day, he was asked to travel to a police station in South Kashmir, where he was further questioned about the article, according to that statement. He was released after each interrogation, he told CPJ in a phone interview.
