BHOPAL: Ranganathan Govindan, the owner of Tamil Nadu-based pharmaceutical unit that manufactured contaminated Coldrif cough syrup linked to the death of 23 children in Madhya Pradesh, was reportedly remanded on Friday.
Arrested from Chennai on Wednesday-Thursday night, Ranganathan was brought on transit remand from Chennai by the special investigation team (SIT) of MP’s Chhindwara district police to Nagpur by flight on Friday morning.
He was subsequently taken in heavy police custody from Nagpur to Parasia police station in MP’s Chhindwara district, where he was kept for some hours, before being taken for production before the court of judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) Shailendra Uike, under heavy police presence.
Amid shouts of Faansi Do, Faansi Do (hang him to death), as Ranganathan was taken out of the police vehicle, some angry persons reportedly tried to attack him, but the alert police foiled their bid. The sudden incident led to Ranganathan’s spectacle falling on the ground.
He was subsequently produced before the court, which remanded him into ten days custody of the 12-member strong SIT of Chhindwara police, which is probing the case.
In a related development, the head of Parasia Advocates body Shyam Kumar Sahu said that the entire advocate fraternity of Parasia block has resolved not to defend Ranganathan in the court and neither allow any advocate from outside to contest his case.
Ranganathan’s Wednesday-Thursday night arrest from Chennai is the second arrest within six days in the case registered at the Parasia police station on the complaint of local block medical officer (BMO) on October 4.
Earlier on October 4 night, government doctor Dr Pravin Soni, who had prescribed the Coldrif cough syrup at his private clinic, to most of the kids who died later, was arrested by the SIT–a development which has enraged the doctor fraternity across the country.
Then the Chhindwara district police in MP had lodged an FIR against the cough syrup manufacturer company, Chhindwara-based government doctor Dr Pravin Soni and others u/s BNS Sections 105 and 276 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder and adulteration of drugs), besides Section 27A of Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940, which deals with manufacturing, stocking, selling and offering for sale spurious and adulterated medicines.
The sections under which the FIR was lodged at the Parasia police station on the complaint of a health department official, carry a punishment ranging between ten years in jail and life imprisonment.
Meanwhile, according to the official bulletin released by the Chhindwara chief medical and health officer (CMHO) office on Friday, so far 20 kids from Chhindwara district have died at hospitals in Nagpur, Chhindwara and other places. As many as six kids remain critical, out of which two are admitted at hospitals in Nagpur (Maharashtra).
With 20 kids from Chhindwara, two from Betul and one from Pandhurna districts having died due to acute kidney failure induced by Coldrif cough syrup poisoning since September 2, the total toll stands at 23 currently.
