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Chhattisgarh sterilisation deaths: Drug firm directors arrested

The state govt has also banned all medicines manufactured by the pharmaceutical company

Raipur: Two directors of a Raipur-based pharmaceutical firm were arrested in connection with supply of alleged spurious drugs to the government-organised family planning camps in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur district last week, leading to death of 14 women, police said on Friday.

“Mahawar Pharma Private Limited’s director Ramesh Mahawar and his son Sumit have been arrested under section 420 of IPC for cheating, on the basis of a complaint lodged by Food and Drug Administration authorities”, police said on Friday.

The company manufactured the controversial drug, Ciprofloxacin, which had allegedly been administered to the unfortunate victims of the free family planning camps held in Bilaspur district recently.

Incidentally, the company operated in an upscale area without a notice board, although its products have been procured by the state health department in past one decade.

Drugs administered to victims of sterilisations in free health camps might contain toxic substances used in manufacture of pesticides, preliminary investigation has revealed.

“The drug, Ciprocin 500, administered to the women who had undergone tubectomy in the four family planning camps in Bilaspur district, suggests presence of Zinc Phosphide, a toxic chemical used in making pesticide, particularly to kill rodents,” a senior officer in state health department told this newspaper here on Friday. He, however, said analysis of the drug by Central Drug Testing Laboratory at Kolkata would confirm it.

( Source : dccorrespondent )
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