A 75-year-old pharma company owner, G Ranganathan, was arrested early on Thursday (9th October) from his apartment in Chennai’s Kodambakkam area in connection with the deaths of several children in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan who reportedly died after consuming a contaminated cough syrup manufactured by his company.
Under the supervision of Deputy Superintendent of Police Jitendra Jaat, a seven-member squad of Madhya Pradesh Police made the arrest between 12:30 am at Ranganathan’s house within the limits of the Ashok Nagar police station.
Soon after his arrest, he was taken to Kancheepuram district, where his pharmaceutical company, Sresan Pharmaceutical Manufacturer, is based.
The arrest follows after several children in Chhindwara district, Madhya Pradesh, died following the ingestion of a cough syrup known as Coldrif, which was manufactured and marketed by Ranganathan’s company.
The deaths caused a state-wide probe of the manufacture and sale of low-quality drugs and raised serious concerns regarding quality control and regulatory enforcement within the pharmaceutical supply chain.
Governments in a number of states, including Madhya Pradesh, immediately directed an immediate ban on the distribution and sale of Coldrif Syrup, after initial laboratory tests revealed the cold syrup to contain a poisonous chemical.
A test conducted at the Government Analyst Drug Testing Laboratory in Chennai confirmed that the cough syrup was “Not of Standard Quality.” The report found that the syrup contained 48.6 per cent Diethylene Glycol, a highly poisonous industrial solvent that can cause kidney and liver failure, neurological damage, and even death when ingested.
The test report stated that the sample was “adulterated, since it contains Diethylene Glycol (48.6% w/v), [a] poisonous substance that may render the contents injurious to health.”
Police said Ranganathan will be taken to Madhya Pradesh on transit remand for further questioning as part of a broader investigation into how such a high level of contamination entered the production process. Investigators are also looking into the company’s records and whether similar products had been distributed in other states.
Over the past two weeks, more than 17 children, 14 in Madhya Pradesh and 3 in Rajasthan, have lost their lives after consuming the cold syrup. This led to the state governments sending the samples of the syrup for testing. The Rajasthan government suspended the Drug Controller Rajaram Sharma, who is said to have changed the definition of a fake drug in official documents, in an attempt to benefit some pharma companies in the state.
