Satish Verma, who labored for the Tamil Nadu-based firm, was arrested from Chhindwara on the intervening night time of Sunday and Monday, mentioned Parasia Sub Divisional Officer of Police Jitendra Kumar Jaat.

Following the deaths, the Tamil Nadu authorities had revoked the manufacturing licence of the corporate. The police have to this point arrested six individuals within the case, together with Sresan Pharma proprietor G Ranganathan, and Chhindwara-based Dr Praveen Soni who allegedly prescribed the syrup to youngsters.

The opposite individuals arrested within the case embody chemist Okay Maheshwari, wholesaler Rajesh Soni and medical retailer pharmacist Sourabh Jain. A number of extra arrests have been anticipated, mentioned police official Jaat. As many as 24 youngsters from MP, largely beneath the age of 5, died on account of suspected kidney failure after they have been administered Coldrif cough syrup.

At the very least three youngsters died after consuming the cough syrup in neighbouring Rajasthan. The tragedy prompted the World Well being Organisation (WHO) to situation an alert in opposition to three “substandard” oral cough syrups recognized in India — Coldrif, Respifresh TR and ReLife.

On October 2, the Tamil Nadu director of medicine management discovered that Coldrif samples weren’t of normal high quality. Three days later, Madhya Pradesh additionally reported that one pattern of Coldrif had 48.6 per cent of diethylene glycol, a poisonous chemical, far exceeding the 0.1 per cent permissible restrict as an impurity.

The MP police subsequently arrested Dr Praveen Soni, a medical practitioner, for alleged negligence. Following the deaths, the syrup was banned in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Puducherry, West Bengal, and Delhi.

The responsible within the case shall not be spared, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav had mentioned. The state authorities additionally suspended the drug controller and assistant drug controller for negligence in testing random samples of the drugs, and fashioned an SIT to probe the matter. The Tamil Nadu authorities sealed Sresan Pharma’s manufacturing unit after the youngsters’s deaths got here to mild.