Syrup 'behind' death of 12 children in Udhampur fails quality test, again

Tribune News Service

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Chandigarh, October 20

An Ambala court has revealed that a sample of Cold Best-PC Syrup manufactured by Digital Vision, which is suspected to be behind the death of 12 children in J&K’s Udhampur in 2020, failed the quality test again.

Digital Vision under regulatory scanner

• At least 12 kids died in J&K’s Udhampur in January 2020
• Were given Cold Best-PC Syrup made by Digital Vision, Nahan
• Syrup allegedly found contaminated with diethylene glycol
• Probing its sale in Haryana, authorities got retest of syrup done

In its order dated October 18, the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Saurabh Gupta said the sample “has been found to be not conforming to the manufacturer specifications”. A copy of the report has been sent to the State Drug Control and Licensing Authority, Panchkula. The Drug Control Officer, Ambala, had filed an application before the court on July 6, 2020, seeking a retest of the Cold Best-PC Syrup under Section 25 (3) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The application was allowed and the sample was sent to Central Drug Laboratory, Kolkata.

The sample carrying batch number DL-5872 was manufactured in January 2020. It had an expiry date of December 2021. The drug was manufactured at Nahan-based Digital Vision. One of the partners of the firm, Purushottam Goyal, admitted in writing before the court that the product in question was manufactured by him. The firm bore the expenses of the retest and deposited a draft of Rs 5,000 with the court.

After Udhampur deaths in January 2020, it was found that Cold Best-PC Syrup was allegedly contaminated with diethylene glycol (DEG), a toxic substance. The syrup, used for cold and fever among children, was subsequently banned.

The probe has revealed that Digital Vision had supplied its entire stock of 5,575 bottles of the syrup to Ambala Cantonment-based distributor Shiva Medical Hall. The latter supplied 1,620 bottles to PP Laboratories, Palwal; 324 to Shiva Medical Agencies, Ambala Cantonment; 162 each to Padha Medical Hall, Panipat, and Anil Medical Store, Raipur Rani; 50 to Om Medicose, Babain; and 30 bottles each to Rana Medical Hall, Yamunanagar; and Dhanvantri Nursing Home, Kalka.

The syrup was also supplied to three firms in Jammu, two in Saharanpur and one each in Kanpur, Aurangabad, Dehradun, Baddi, Bulandshahr, Vijayawada, Trichy, Ghaziabad and Shillong. Soon after the incident, the drug control authorities across the country swung into action and seized the unsold stock.

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