MP SIT notice to Tamil Nadu drugs department on cough syrup

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh SIT probing the cough syrup deaths in Chhindwara and Betul has issued notice to Tamil Nadu govt’s food safety and drug administration department, seeking inspection, audit and compliance records of Sresan Pharmaceuticals, the company that manufactured the toxic Coldrif syrup, reports P Naveen.“We want details of inspections that the TN drugs control officers conducted before the deaths came to light,” said an officer.Officials said the SIT has collected medical records of 19 deceased children, while documentation for the remaining victims is being compiled.Contaminant screening wasn’t done in batch testing: ProbeThe move comes days after MP chief minister Mohan Yadav blamed Tamil Nadu govt for what he described as a “failure of regulatory vigilance and timely intervention”.

Yadav said the tragedy stemmed from manufacturing lapses at the TN-based unit and that the southern state’s authorities should have detected the violation before the contaminated batch was dispatched.Once the TN drug administration department submits its responses, the probe will enter its second phase, focusing on individual accountability within the regulatory framework.Investigators have uncovered crucial lapses in quality control, including the alleged negligence of K Maheshwari, a woman lab technician at Sresan Pharma who reportedly failed to perform the mandatory contaminant screening during batch testing.

“If she had conducted the prescribed tests, the contaminated syrup would never have left the factory. This single act of negligence cost innocent lives,” a senior officer told TOI.The SIT is also examining whether the drugs control officers in Tamil Nadu conducted only paperwork-based inspections instead of physical verification of manufacturing and testing conditions. Officials are looking into when the last factory inspection was carried out, whether solvent samples were independently verified, if batch deviations were reported, and whether quality-control audits were conducted by third-party experts.Officials said the scope of arrests could expand to include those in the quality control chain, procurement wing, and supervisory layer who cleared the contaminated batch for dispatch.“We are moving beyond the manufacturer. Every person who allowed this poison to enter a child’s body will be held accountable,” a senior officer who is part of the investigation said.