CHENNAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday launched searches at offices and residences linked to officials of the Tamil Nadu Drug Control Department and Sresan Pharma, as part of a money laundering probe connected to the Madhya Pradesh cough syrup deaths, sources said.
The central agency is reportedly searching at least seven locations across Chennai and Kancheepuram districts.
The owner of Sresan Pharma, one of the pharmaceutical companies that manufactured the cough syrup linked to the deaths of 24 children in Madhya Pradesh, was arrested in Chennai and remanded in judicial custody in Chhindwara on 10 October.
Sources added that the ED has taken cognisance of two FIRs as predicate offences to initiate its investigation. The first is an FIR registered by the Madhya Pradesh Police in connection with the cough syrup fatalities.
The second FIR pertains to a corruption case filed by Tamil Nadu’s Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) in July against P.U. Karthikeyan, the then acting Director of the Tamil Nadu Drug Control Department. Karthikeyan was caught red-handed by DVAC while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 25,000 from a Vellore-based cosmetics manufacturer in return for a government licence to manufacture soaps. He was subsequently arrested by the DVAC.
