Jabalpur: The Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of pediatrician Praveen Soni, who was arrested last October for allegedly prescribing Coldriff – a cough syrup linked to the deaths of at least 17 people in Madhya Pradesh and four in Rajasthan.
The first infant death linked to Coldriff was reported in Chindwara on 4 September, but the syrup was prescribed (representative photo).A single bench of Justice Pramod Aggarwal said, “The trial court shall proceed with the matter without being influenced by any observation made by this court and decide the case strictly in accordance with law.”
The order said, “Despite a conversation between pediatrician Praveen Khapekar and Soni, in which Khapekar informed him that 33 children had died in Delhi in 1998 due to DEG-contaminated cough syrup and that a similar reaction could occur this time, Soni continued to prescribe the cough syrup. It resulted in the death of a child under the age of four or five years under the age of 26. Besides public health, Soni received a commission to prescribe cough syrup and The co-accused persons destroyed the evidence relating to the syrup to protect the petitioner (doctor).
The order concluded that it was not a fit case to grant bail to the petitioner.
Soni, who was posted at Parasia Civil Hospital in Chhindwara district, was arrested on October 5 under Indian Penal Code (BNS) sections 276 (drug adulteration) and 105 (not amounting to murder) and relevant sections of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. 1940”), based on a complaint filed by Parasia Block Medical Officer Ankit Sehlam.
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“Despite the death of a child on September 4, he prescribed dangerous cough syrup for children under the age of four, for whom the syrup was prohibited,” Sehlam alleged.
On 4 September the first child death linked to Coldriff was reported in Chindwara, but the syrup was prescribed. As more cases emerged across multiple states, health authorities launched a wide-ranging investigation. Laboratory tests showed that the syrup contained diethylene glycol (DEG) – a toxic industrial solvent – in alarmingly high concentrations. DEG is commonly used in products such as brake fluid and antifreeze and ingestion can cause acute kidney failure/acute tubular necrosis (ATN) and death within 24 hours. Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Telangana have now banned the sale of Coldriff.
While the permissible limit for DEG in medicine is only 0.1%, government laboratory and drug department reports showed that coldriff samples collected from shops in Chhindwara, where the death occurred, contained up to 46.2% of the chemical.
Some children allegedly died after being referred to a medical college hospital in Nagpur, Maharashtra. The drug was sold by co-accused Jyoti Soni, who was working at Apna Medical Store owned by her husband Praveen Soni.
Jyoti Soni allegedly sold “Coldriff Syrup” without prescription. It is further submitted that when Soni prescribed the alleged cough syrup, he received a commission of 10% on each bottle and the co-accused profited. ₹23 per bottle. Hence, the couple allegedly received commissions and profits from prescribing and selling cough syrup. It is alleged that they were in collusion and each got commission/profit according to his respective role.
