Cough syrup tragedy: Medical representative of pharmaceutical company arrested in MP

Police have arrested a medical representative of Shreeson Pharma, the maker of ‘contaminated’ cough syrup Coldrif syrup, which is suspected to be the cause of the deaths of 24 children in Madhya Pradesh, an official said here on Tuesday.

Parasia police sub-divisional officer Jitendra Kumar Jat said that Satish Verma, who worked for a Tamil Nadu-based company, was arrested from Chhindwara on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.

Following the deaths, the Tamil Nadu government had canceled the manufacturing license of the company.

Police have so far arrested six people in this case, including Shrisan Pharma owner G Ranganathan and Chhindwara-based Dr Praveen Soni, who allegedly gave the syrup to the children.

Others arrested in the case include chemist K Maheshwari, wholesaler Rajesh Soni and medical store pharmacist Saurabh Jain.

Police officer Jat said, some more arrests are expected.

At least 24 children in MP, most of whom were below 5 years of age, died of suspected kidney failure after being given Coldrif cough syrup.

At least three children died after drinking cough syrup in the neighboring state of Rajasthan.

The tragedy prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to issue a warning against three “substandard” oral cough syrups identified in India – Coldrif, Respifresh TR and Relife.

On 2 October, the Tamil Nadu Drug Control Director found that Coldrif’s samples were not of standard quality. Three days later, Madhya Pradesh also reported that a sample from Coldrif contained 48.6 percent diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical, far above the acceptable limit of 0.1 percent as an impurity.

MP Police later arrested a doctor, Dr Praveen Soni, 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.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav had said that the culprits would not be spared in the case. The state government also suspended the Drug Controller and Assistant Drug Controller for negligence in testing random samples of the drug and formed an SIT to investigate the matter.

After the case of death of children came to light, Tamil Nadu government sealed the manufacturing unit of Srisan Pharma.