Cough syrup deaths: Madhya Pradesh Police arrest pharma owner in Chennai

S Ranganathan was arrested on Thursday and will be presented before the court in Chennai today. He will be then taken to Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh after securing transit remand.

Chennai: In a late night operation, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Madhya Pradesh Police with help from their Tamil Nadu counterparts arrested G Ranganathan, owner of Sresan Pharmaceuticals, whose contaminated cough syrup claimed the lives of at least 21 children.

Ranganathan was arrested at 1 am on Thursday by the SIT from his apartment in Kodambakkam in Chennai. He will be taken to Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh, where most of the deaths took place, after the SIT gets the court permission for the same.

“Besides securing Ranganathan, the SIT also recovered important documents about the company from his apartment. During their raid at the now-closed factory, drug samples and production records were collected. Most of the job was done by the SIT. We merely assisted them,” a source in Greater Chennai Police told DH. After the arrest, the SIT took Ranganathan to his factory.

The arrest comes a day after the Tamil Nadu government sealed the factory owned by Sresan Pharmaceuticals in Sunguvarchatiram near Chennai and the State Drugs Control Department issued two show-cause notices to the manufacturer, directing it to recall all remaining stock of Coldrif, the killer syrup, and provide complete distribution records within five days.

The Madhya Pradesh Police had registered a case against paediatrician Dr Praveen Soni and Ranganathan of Sresan Pharmaceuticals under sections 276 (adulteration of drugs) and 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

The notices followed findings of about 350 violations at the pharmaceutical company, and a lab test revealing the syrup contained 48.6 percent diethylene glycol, an industrial chemical that can cause renal failure. Sresan Pharmaceuticals holds a license to manufacture the cough syrup until 2026.

As the issue made national headlines and politicians in Tamil Nadu started blaming the DMK dispensation for children’s death, Health Minister Ma Subramanian laid the blame on Central and Madhya Pradesh governments for not taking action after they were informed that the cough syrup was found to be contaminated with a toxic substance.

Subramanian said the MP government wrote to its TN counterparts on October 1 about the deaths of the children following which an investigation by the government here found that the syrup was unfit for consumption.

“Despite our warning, the Madhya Pradesh and the Union government maintained that there was nothing wrong with the syrup. But after we conducted a lab test that found that the syrup was heavily contaminated, we issued a ‘stop production’ order on October 3,” Subramanian said.

He added that Tamil Nadu has suspended two of its senior drug officials after the deaths of 21 children were linked to Sresan Pharmaceuticals. The minister also said the government will move towards permanently cancelling the license of the pharma company.

A statement released by the Health Department late on Thursday night said a show cause memo was pasted outside the residence of the firm’s owner and a criminal complaint was filed against him before the Sunguvarchatiram police station on October 7.

“Though proper inspections on the firm led to actions in 2021 and 2022, two senior drug officials have been suspended for not conducting periodical checks. The government will also conduct a detailed review of pharma companies in the state,” the statement added.

The notice issued on Tuesday said the sample has been declared as Not of Standard Quality by the Government Analyst (Drugs), Drugs Testing Laboratory, Chennai, because it was found to be adulterated with diethylene glycol.

The notice sought details such as the total quantity of the drug manufactured, distribution records, master formula, and batch packaging documentation. “The firm is also required to recall the drug from recipients and furnish details of recalled stock,” the notice added.