ED Raids Coldrif Factory, Houses of TN Drug Control Officials
At least 20 children, mostly under the age of five, have died after being administered Coldrif in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan
Chennai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on Monday carried out raids at the Sreesan pharmaceuticals in relation to the cases on the death of over 20 children who consumed the Coldrif cough syrup in Madhya Pradesh. The officials who arrived in the morning waited for about two hours since the factory was closed and carried out searches with Tamil Nadu police and CRPF protection. At the same time, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Madhya Pradesh police brought the factory owner G. Ranganathan to the factory for enquiries
The ED team also conducted searches under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at the residence of factory owner G. Ranganathan at Kodambakkam besides the residences of top officials of the Tamil Nadu Food and Drug Control Department.
The ED raids are related to charges of financial transactions or illegal monetary dealings between the pharmaceutical company and the food and drug control department officials who were suspended. Questions have arisen over the failure of drug inspectors to carry out mandatory checking at the factory for the last two years and whether the officials received payment for keeping the factory free from checking. The ED officials carried out searches in the house of a retired school teacher Srinivasan living in Chrompet.
The factory owner Ranganathan was brought from Madhya Pradesh by the SIT investigating the deaths on Monday morning. He was arrested on October 9. Ranganathan was booked under charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, drug adulteration and violations of the Drug and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
The examination by the Tamil Nadu Food and Drug Control Department revealed that 48.6 percent of di-ethylene glycol was found in the cough syrup drug and an order was issued on Wednesday to permanently stop the production.
