China created Covid-19 as ‘biological weapon’: Plea in Delhi court seeks NIA probe
The petition stated that the coronavirus, which has origins in China, was spread by the neighbouring country as part of a conspiracy with the aim to cause widespread human and monetary loss in India and worldwide.
Former director general of health services Dr Jagdish Prasad moved a Delhi court on Tuesday seeking directions to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to lodge an FIR and commence a probe into the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in India, news agency ANI reported.
In his plea, Dr Prasad stated that it is “clear” the virus that has “origins in China” has been “deliberately, artificially created as a biological weapon, and spread as [the same] as part of a conspiracy” with the aim to cause widespread human and financial loss in India and worldwide.
“All this has been the result of a possible deliberate conspiracy by state and/or non-state actors in China, as part of a coordinated creation and transmission of the virus,” the plea further said.
The petition also highlighted that though intelligence agencies and agencies accountable for overviewing immigration into China were aware of the risk linked to the coronavirus, they refrained from issuing warnings or directions or even taking measures to check its spread in the early stages. Dr Prasad said that the roles of such agencies should be scrutinised as part of the NIA investigation.
The plea said that officials associated with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), and the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), among others, are “material witnesses” in the investigation process.
Dr Prasad stated that owing to the “nefarious, terrorist, expansionist, aggressive and animus behaviour of China at the borders in the northeast region of India,” it would be dangerous to not undertake a “detailed investigation of the origins and spread of the virus from China to India.” The plea added that the probe will help disclose the “entire truth” and the “guilty can be punished in accordance with various provisions of Indian laws.”
The petition has moved through advocate Mahmoood Pracha and sought filing of FIR under section 156 (3) Cr PC and section 16 of the NIA Act.
This follows China’s latest jibe at the US over investigation into the origin of Covid-19 pandemic. Spokesperson of China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, Zhao Lijian on Monday took to Twitter to state that laboratories are to be probed. The World Health Organisation (WHO) officials should “go to Fort Detrick.”
“Only in this way can truth be revealed to the world,” Zhao wrote on the microblogging site.
Earlier this month, the WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that a second stage of the international probe should include “audits of relevant laboratories and research institutions operating in the area of the initial human cases identified in December 2019.
Last month, Ghebreyesus had urged China to cooperate with the ongoing probe. “We need transparency to understand or know or find the origin of this virus... after the report was released, there were difficulties in data sharing, especially with raw data,” he added.
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