NEW DELHI: A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking urgent judicial intervention to address the deaths of children allegedly caused by the consumption of contaminated cough syrup in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
At least 14 children have died since early September, with most of the cases reported from Nagpur in Maharashtra and Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh.
The PIL, filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari, claimed that laboratory tests conducted by the Madhya Pradesh government confirmed the presence of Diethylene Glycol (DEG) -- a toxic industrial solvent prohibited for pharmaceutical use -- in 'Coldrif Cough Syrup' manufactured by Tamil Nadu’s Sresan Pharma Pvt. Ltd.
The initial cases were reported from Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district in early September, and within days, the death toll mounted as similar cases emerged from Nagpur, Maharashtra.