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Cough syrup deaths: MP police arrest Sreesan Pharma director G Ranganathan
The SIT also seized important documents, drug samples and production records from the company in Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu.
The Madhya Pradesh police have arrested Sreesan Pharma director G Ranganathan after the Coldrif cough syrup manufactured by the company led to the deaths of 21 children in Chhindwara district of the state.
The police had on Wednesday night announced a reward of ₹20,000 for information on the owner.
“The SIT team formed by the Madhya Pradesh government raided Chennai on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday and arrested Ranganathan,” said Ajay Pandey, superintendent of police, Chhindwara.
“Ranganathan was absconding with his wife. In Chennai, Ranganathan’s 2,000-square-foot apartment on the Chennai-Bengaluru highway was sealed, while his registered office in Kodambakkam was found closed,” said the SP.
The SIT also seized important documents, drug samples and production records from the company in Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu.
The police had registered a case against paediatrician Dr Praveen Soni and syrup manufacturer Sreesan Pharmaceuticals under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 276 (adulteration of drugs) and 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).
After the death of children in Chhindwara, the Tamil Nadu drug controller too had tested the sample of Coldrif syrup, and found it to be dangerously adulterated with toxic substances such as diethylene glycol (DEG). The DEG concentration was found to be over 48% in Coldrif compared to the permissible limit of just 0.1%.
In the investigation, 39 critical observations and 325 major observations were noticed by the team at the manufacturing unit in which several non-compliances under Schedule M and L1 of the Drugs Rules, 1945, were found.
