NEW DELHI, Mar 3: Three employees of a pharmaceutical firm in Noida in Uttar Pradesh were arrested on Friday by the Noida police in connection with the alleged deaths of 18 children in Uzbekistan last year after consuming cough syrup manufactured by the company, officials said.
The arrests were carried out following an FIR filed late Thursday night against five officials of Marion Biotech, including two of its directors, over a complaint by a drugs inspector of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) which conducted a thorough investigation on reports filed by Uzbekistan over the children’s death.
The central and Uttar Pradesh state drug authorities had checked samples of Marion Biotech’s drugs and found 22 of them to be “not of standard quality” (adulterated and spurious), according to the complainant drug inspector.
“Three persons named in the FIR have been arrested, while the two directors of the company are at large. Those arrested are Tuhin Bhattacharya, Head Operation; Atul Rawat, Manufacturing Chemist; and Mool Singh, Analytical Chemist,” Phase 3 police station in-charge Vijay Kumar said.
Marion Biotech, which has its office in Sector 67 in Noida, had come under the scanner in December last year for its cough syrup Dok-1 that is suspected to have led to the death of 18 children who consumed it in Uzbekistan after which the CDSCO launched a probe into the matter.
(Manas Dasgupta)