Samay Raina faces legal heat by Supreme Court over his disability remark

Mumbai: “India’s Got Latent” ideator Samay Raina has landed in legal soup yet again as the Supreme Court has expressed distress regarding his insensitive remarks allegedly making fun of an infant suffering from spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a heartbreaking medical condition.

Raina recently faced backlash over Ranveer Allahbadia’s joke about parents and sex on “India’s Got Latent.” Now, Raina has been summoned in another case related to jokes about disability.

Sharing concern over Raina’s remark about the disabled, Justice Surya Kant stated, “We are really disturbed by the allegations. We place such instances on record… implead the concerned persons… suggest measures. Then we will see.”

SC’s reaction comes after an intervention application was submitted by the Cure SMA Foundation of India, urging the court to consider the massive prices of drugs used to treat the condition.

It must be noted here that the life-saving drugs for SMA include Zolgensma, a one-time gene therapy that costs approximately Rs 16 crore.

The application stated that such medicines are beyond the reach of the majority of the population of the country, and keeping this in mind, it was not correct of Raina to allegedly make fun of the fact that raising funds is the only way for poor people to buy these medicines.

The foundation asked for “the highest degree of sensitivity and compassion” when it comes to talking about people suffering from SMA.

During his show, “India’s Got Latent” Raina pointed out a charity case of a two-month-old baby. He said “something crazy” had happened, “A two-month-old baby requires a Rs 16 crore injection.”

Addressing a woman in the audience, he added, “Ma’am, you tell me… if you were that mother and one day Rs 16 crore appeared in your bank account… while you had a two-month-old… wouldn’t you at least look at your husband once and say…’Hmmm… inflation is rising’.”

IANS