Indian sentenced to 20 years jail term over Uzbekistan cough syrup deaths

The Supreme Court of Uzbekistan found Singh Raghvendra Pratap guilty of charges, including tax fraud and forgery, following a six-month long trial in the matter

Uzbekistan sentenced an Indian national to a 20-year jail term on Monday for his role in the death of 68 children stemming from the intake of contaminated cough syrups in the nation. Singh Raghvendra Pratap and 20 other people linked to the case were handed out various sentences by the country.

Singh is the director of a company that imported the Doc-1 Max syrup into Uzbekistan. A total of 86 children in Uzbekistan suffered poisoning due to the syrup between 2022 and 2023, of which 68 died.

The Supreme Court of Uzbekistan found Singh guilty of charges, including tax fraud and forgery, following a six-month-long trial in the matter.

Toxic substances found in syrups 

According to the World Health Organisation's probe conducted on samples, toxic substances - diethylene glycol or ethylene glycol - were discovered in the syrups, which led to dozens of deaths.

Noida-based pharmaceutical firm Marion Biotech, responsible for the contaminated syrup production, had faced licence suspension over the issue in December 2022.

In January 2023, the WHO had labelled Marion's cough syrups as "substandard" and issued a medical product alert against its two items.

Haryana-based company also involved in controversy

Notably, before the Marion controversy, Haryana-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals was linked to the deaths of 70 children in Gambia due to the intake of contaminated cough syrup.

In February 2023, Maiden Pharma founder Naresh Kumar Goel and technical director M K Sharma were sentenced to jail by a Haryana court for exporting substandard drugs to Vietnam a decade ago. The company was banned in Vietnam in 2014 for quality-related violations.

India's pharma exports touched $24.5 billion in the financial year 2021-2022 (FY22).