Chennai, Oct 14: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday carried out searches at seven locations in Chennai linked to Sresan Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of the cough syrup Coldrif, which has been blamed for the deaths of at least 22 children in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district.
According to officials, the raids are part of a money laundering investigation related to the sale of adulterated drugs. The ED teams also searched premises linked to senior officers of the Tamil Nadu Drug Control Department, including the residence of its director (in-charge), who was earlier caught taking a bribe.
Sources said investigators are probing the proceeds of crime generated from the sale of Coldrif, which was found to contain lethal levels of diethylene glycol, a toxic substance that caused kidney damage among several children in Chhindwara’s Parasia town. The syrup has since been banned in multiple states.
The Madhya Pradesh Police had earlier registered an FIR against Sresan Pharma, accusing the company of manufacturing adulterated syrup that directly led to the deaths. Following the probe, the Tamil Nadu government suspended two drug control officers for failing to conduct inspections over the past two years.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau later arrested the acting director of the Drug Control Department, and the FIR in that case was listed as a scheduled offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, leading to the ED’s intervention.
Sresan Pharmaceuticals owner G. Ranganathan was arrested last week by the Madhya Pradesh Police from his Chennai residence and remanded to 10 days’ police custody. He has maintained in court that he has been manufacturing the cough syrup “for years without any issues.” (Agencies)
