Cough syrup tragedy: Drug company's medical representative held in MP

Chhindwara (MP) | Police have arrested a medical representative of Sresan Pharma, manufacturer of `contaminated' cough syrup Coldrif syrup which is suspected to have caused the deaths of 24 children in Madhya Pradesh, an official said here on Tuesday.

Satish Verma, who worked for the Tamil Nadu-based company, was arrested from Chhindwara on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, said Parasia Sub Divisional Officer of Police Jitendra Kumar Jaat.

Following the deaths, the Tamil Nadu government had revoked the manufacturing licence of the company.

The police have so far arrested six persons in the case, including Sresan Pharma owner G Ranganathan, and Chhindwara-based Dr Praveen Soni who allegedly prescribed the syrup to children.

The other persons arrested in the case include chemist K Maheshwari, wholesaler Rajesh Soni and medical store pharmacist Sourabh Jain.

A few more arrests were expected, said police official Jaat.

As many as 24 children from MP, mostly under the age of 5, died due to suspected kidney failure after they were administered Coldrif cough syrup.

At least three children died after consuming the cough syrup in neighbouring Rajasthan.

The tragedy prompted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to issue an alert against three "substandard" oral cough syrups identified in India -- Coldrif, Respifresh TR and ReLife.

On October 2, the Tamil Nadu director of drugs control found that Coldrif samples were not of standard quality. Three days later, Madhya Pradesh also reported that one sample of Coldrif had 48.6 per cent of diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical, far exceeding the 0.1 per cent permissible limit as an impurity.

The MP police subsequently arrested Dr Praveen Soni, a medical practitioner, for alleged negligence.

Following the deaths, the syrup was banned in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Puducherry, West Bengal, and Delhi.

The guilty in the case shall not be spared, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav had said. The state government also suspended the drug controller and assistant drug controller for negligence in testing random samples of the medicine, and formed an SIT to probe the matter.

The Tamil Nadu government sealed Sresan Pharma's manufacturing unit after the children's deaths came to light.