Singh Raghavendra Pratap was given the harshest punishment. (Representative)
Tashkent:
Uzbekistan on Monday sentenced 21 people over the deaths of 68 children after drinking contaminated cough syrup produced in India.
At least 86 children were poisoned in the Central Asian country between 2022 and 2023, 68 of whom died.
Indian national Singh Raghavendra Pratap, director of a company that imported Dok-1 Max syrup in Uzbekistan, was given the harshest punishment of 20 years.
According to the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan, he was found guilty of corruption, tax fraud and counterfeiting.
The World Health Organization said in January 2023 that samples of the syrup showed that it was contaminated with either diethylene glycol or ethylene glycol, toxic substances used as industrial solvents that can cause serious health problems when ingested even in small amounts. Can be fatal.
After this, India canceled the production license of cough syrup manufacturing company Marion Biotech.
During the same period, at least 70 children died of acute kidney failure in Gambia after consuming another syrup imported from India.
In Indonesia, another syrup in similar containers caused the deaths of more than 200 children between 2022 and 2023.
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