A court in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district has sent the owner of a pharmaceutical company, arrested on Thursday in connection with the deaths of 22 children who consumed contaminated cough syrup, to 10 days’ police custody. Sresan Pharmaceutical Manufacture owner G Ranganathan was arrested from his apartment in Kodambakkam in Chennai, by a seven-member team from the Madhya Pradesh Police. According to police sources, Ranganathan has argued in court that he had been manufacturing the cough syrup for years “without any issues”. Several children in Chhindwara’s Parasia town fell ill and suffered kidney damage, allegedly after consuming Coldrif cough syrup, which is manufactured by Sresan Pharmaceutical. At least 22 of them have died. The cough syrup was found to contain lethal levels of diethylene glycol, and it has since been banned in multiple states. Chhindwara SP Ajay Pandey told The Indian Express, “The accused has been sent to 10 days in police custody. We wanted to confront the accused with the list of evidence that we have seized.” According to officers, police will question Ranganathan to uncover his suppliers, stockists, and medical representatives in an effort to identify every link involved in the manufacture and sale of the cough syrup. The investigation will also focus on how these products were manufactured, what checks and balances were in place, and what the violations were, they said. Ranganathan was brought before the court of civil judge Shailendra Uikey. He had argued that he had been manufacturing the cough syrup for “several years and there have never been any issues with the product”, said a senior police officer who was part of the proceedings. Ranganathan also claimed that he had issues with his blood pressure and asked not to be sent to police custody. Police argued that his custody was needed to “uncover the manufacturing process of the cough syrup, its distribution networks and the quality control checks at his firms”. Police asked the court to grant custody, considering the “seriousness of the case”.
