CHHINDWARA: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the cough syrup tragedy that claimed the lives of 24 children in Madhya Pradesh has arrested the wife of accused Dr Praveen Soni, an official said on Tuesday.
Dr Soni, based in Chhindwara, was arrested last month for alleged negligence after prescribing the contaminated cough syrup Coldrif to several ailing children who later died due to kidney failure.
His wife, Jyoti Soni, another accused in the case, was arrested from her residence in Parasia town of Chhindwara district on Monday night, according to Sub-Divisional Officer of Police and SIT in-charge Jitendra Jaat.
She is the proprietor of a medical shop from where the cough syrup was sold to several of the victims, the official added.
So far, seven people have been arrested in connection with the tragedy.
Following the deaths, the Tamil Nadu government revoked the licence of the cough syrup’s manufacturer, Sresan Pharma.
Those arrested include Sresan Pharma’s owner G. Ranganathan, medical representative Satish Verma, chemist K. Maheshwari, wholesaler Rajesh Soni, and pharmacist Sourabh Jain.
A total of 24 children in Madhya Pradesh, most under the age of five, reportedly died from suspected kidney failure after being administered Coldrif cough syrup. At least three similar deaths were reported in neighbouring Rajasthan.
The tragedy prompted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to issue an alert against three “substandard” oral cough syrups identified in India, Coldrif, Respifresh TR, and ReLife.
On October 2, the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Drugs Control found that Coldrif samples were not of standard quality. Three days later, Madhya Pradesh authorities reported that one sample of Coldrif contained 48.6 per cent diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical, far exceeding the permissible impurity limit of 0.1 per cent.
The Madhya Pradesh police subsequently arrested Dr Praveen Soni for alleged negligence.
Following the deaths, the sale of the syrup was banned in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Puducherry, West Bengal, and Delhi.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said that those responsible would not be spared. The state government also suspended the drug controller and assistant drug controller for negligence in testing random samples of the medicine, and formed the SIT to investigate the case.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government has sealed Sresan Pharma’s manufacturing unit after the deaths came to light.