BHOPAL: Acute kidney failure caused by poisoning from Coldrif cough syrup has claimed the life of one more child from Madhya Pradesh, taking the total death toll from the tragedy to 24.
The latest death was reported from a hospital in Nagpur (Maharashtra), where Ambika Viswakarma, aged three and a half years, a native of the Chourai area of Chhindwara district, who had been under treatment since September 14, died due to acute renal failure on Wednesday.
While confirming the tragic development, Chhindwara’s additional district collector Dhirendra Singh told TNIE that with this latest death, as many as 21 children from various parts of Chhindwara district have died at hospitals in Chhindwara and Nagpur due to the cough syrup poisoning-induced acute kidney failure since September 3.
With three more children, including one from Pandhurna district and two from Betul district, also having fallen prey due to similar health complications, the total number of children from southern MP districts who have died due to it now stands at 24.
Meanwhile, a team from the Chhindwara district police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing the case and currently camping in Tamil Nadu, has arrested the woman chemical analyst of Sresan Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of the concerned cough syrup.
The 61-year-old woman chemical analyst who has been arrested from Tamil Nadu will now be brought on transit remand to MP.
This is the second arrest in the case from Tamil Nadu, after the October 11 arrest of the manufacturing firm’s 75-year-old owner Ranganathan Govindan, and overall, the fifth arrest in the case.
Three others who have so far been arrested in the case from Chhindwara district of MP include the government doctor Dr. Pravin Soni (who prescribed the Coldrif cough syrup at his private clinic in Parasia town to most of the children who died later), the local stockist of the syrup Rajesh Soni, and Saurabh Jain, the pharmacist at Apna Medical Store.
