Nearly three years have passed since 12 children fell victim to an India-made cough syrup in Udhampur district, but the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to investigate the case is yet to file a chargesheet.The police claim that the filing of the chargesheet has been delayed as they are yet to lay their hands on all 12 death certificates. Apparently, the death certificates of three of the 12 victims have not been issued.While the chargesheet is still awaited, the five accused, including the chemist, supplier and three owners of the cough syrup manufacturing company, are on bail.

Twelve children between 11 months and 4 years had died between December 2019 and January 2020 after they consumed a cough syrup called Coldbest-PC, manufactured by the Kala Amb-based Digital Vision. SSP, Udhampur, Vinod Kumar while talking to the media said he had initiated the process to speed up the filing of the chargesheet by sorting out the issue of the death certificates.

Local activists and the Human Rights Commission had put a lot of pressure before cases were filed against the five accused. The case had gone into cold storage after Covid-19 but has again drawn attention with the recent deaths of children in Gambia and Indonesia linked to spurious cough syrups made by Indian companies.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP