IMA files police complaint against Ramdev, Patanjali says will give 'befitting reply'
New Delhi: After having already served yoga guru-cum-entrepreneur Ramdev with a Rs 1,000 crore lawsuit for defaming doctors practising modern medicine, the Indian Medical Association on Thursday lodged a police complaint against him, seeking an FIR over his "dishonest and wrongful representations" on allopathy.
In the complaint submitted at the IP Estate Police Station, the apex medical body said Ramdev has "wilfully and deliberately spread false, baseless and malicious information" about treatment of Covid patients by established and approved methods and drugs.
"We have received the complaint and enquiry is being conducted," a senior Delhi Police officer said.
The IMA's complaint dated May 9 said: "Swami Ramdev, in order to take advantage of the Covid situation, on a public platform in furtherance of his ulterior motives has put forth dishonest and wrongful representations with regard to allopathic medicines and other allied treatment techniques of modern medical science for the COVID-19 virus.
"In a video which has surfaced and is being shared widely throughout the social media, Swami Ramdev is seen willfully and deliberately spreading false, baseless and malicious information with regard to the treatment of various patients suffering from COVID-19 by established and approved treatment methods and drugs," it said.
The IMA had earlier written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that yoga guru Ramdev be booked immediately under sedition charges for alleged misinformation campaign on vaccination and challenging government protocols for treatment of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Patanjali, Ramdev's company, on Thursday confirmed that it had received the defamation notice and said it will give legally a "befitting reply". This comes as Ramdev on Wednesday was quoted as saying that "no one could dare to arrest me" after being served with IMA's lawsuit.
In the defamation notice, the IMA had demanded an apology from Ramdev within 15 days or it will seek Rs 1,000 crore in compensation.
On Sunday, Ramdev was forced to withdraw a statement made in the viral video clip in which he is heard questioning some of the medicines being used to treat the Coronavirus infection and saying that "lakhs have died from taking allopathic medicines for COVID-19".
The remarks were met with vociferous protests from the doctors' association, following which Union Health minister Harsh Vardhan asked him to withdraw the "extremely unfortunate" statement.
A day later, the yoga guru posed 25 questions to the IMA in an 'open letter' on his Twitter handle, asking if allopathy offered permanent relief for ailments such as hypertension and type-1 and 2 diabetes.
He went on to list modern-day ailments such as Parkinson's disease and wondered if allopathy had any painless cure to treat infertility as well as to reverse ageing and increase haemoglobin.
Soon after, Ramdev's close aide Acharya Balkrishna took to Twitter, saying the yoga guru and Ayurveda were being targeted by allopathic practitioners under the IMA as part of a purported conspiracy.
