On Monday, a court in Uzbekistan handed down jail sentences to 23 individuals, one of whom is Indian, in connection with the deaths of 68 children caused by contaminated cough syrup manufactured by Marion Biotech Limited, a company based in Noida.
The Indian convict, Singh Raghvendra Pratap, was handed the longest sentence of 20 years. He worked as an executive director at Quramax Medical, a firm that sold medicines produced by Marion Biotech, reported Reuters.
The Uzbekistan had alleged that distributors of the cough syrup had bribed local officials to skip mandatory testing.
Pratap paid $33,000 (around Rs 27 lakh) to officials at the Centre for Expertise and Standardisation of Medicinal Products to skip a mandatory inspection of his products, said State prosecutor Saidkarim Akilov.
The convicts were found guilty of selling substandard or counterfeit medicines, neglecting their official duties, forging documents, evading tax and bribing officials.
