Uzbekistan’s Supreme Court on Monday sentenced 21 people, including Indian businessman Raghavendra Pratap, over the death of 68 children by drinking poisonous cough syrup produced in India.
At least 86 children were given poisonous cough syrup between 2022 and 2023 in the Central Asian country, 68 of whom died.
Raghavendra Pratap, director of a company that imported Dok-1 Max syrup in Uzbekistan, has been sentenced to the harshest punishment of 20 years.
According to the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan, he was found guilty of corruption, tax fraud and counterfeiting.
The World Health Organization said in January 2023 that samples of the syrup showed that it was contaminated with either diethylene glycol or ethylene glycol, toxic substances used as industrial solvents that can cause serious health problems when ingested even in small amounts. Can be fatal.
After this, India had canceled the production license of cough syrup manufacturing company Marion Biotech.
During the same period, at least 70 children died in Gambia after consuming another syrup imported from India.
In Indonesia, another syrup in similar containers was linked to the deaths of more than 200 children between 2022 and 2023.