Uzbekistan starts trial against 21 for bribery enabling sale of contaminated Indian cough syrup

Uzbekistan state prosecutors on Wednesday (August 16) alleged that distributors of a contaminated Indian cough syrup that killed 65 children in the country bribed local officials with $33,000 to go around mandatory testing.

Uzbekistan has put 21 people on trial: 20 Uzbeks and one Indian. The allegations have, for the first time, made public a much higher death toll.

Three of the defendants (an Indian and two Uzbekistan nationals) are executives of Quramax Medical, a company that sold medicines produced by India’s Marion Biotech, in Uzbekistan.

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State prosecutor Saidkarim Akilov said that Quramax CEO Singh Raghvendra Pratar allegedly bribed officials at the state centre for expertise and standardisation of medicinal products. The bribe of $33,000 was allegedly paid so that mandatory inspection of products would be skipped.

It was unclear from the prosecutor’s statement whether the inspection was supposed to involve tests in Uzbekistan, or a request for tests to be carried out by the producer in India.

Pratar spoke in court and denied the charges. However, he admitted to handing over the sum to Uzbek officials through an intermediary as a "token of appreciation". Pratar claimed that he had no idea as to how and by whom the money was later used.

Seven of the 21 defendants have pleaded guilty to at least some of the charges levelled against them.

These include tax evasion, sale of substandard or counterfeit medicines, abuse of office, negligence, forgery, and bribery.

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Officials have not said why 45 deaths had remained unreported since last year.

On Wednesday, state prosecutors also said that Quramax had imported the medicines at an inflated price. The medicines were bought via two Singapore-based intermediary companies, they said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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