The Indian national is among the 23 people sentenced to prison by a court in Uzbekistan over the deaths of 68 children related to contaminated cough syrups.
According to the Reuters report, the contaminated cough syrups were produced by India's Marion Biotech. The decision has been announced against the accused following a six-month-long trial.
Earlier, 65 children were said to be dead due to the contaminated syrups, however last month the death toll rose to 68 as three more children’s death was reported to be caused by these substandard drugs.
Among the defendants who have been sent to the jail by the Uzbek Court included one Indian national— Singh Raghvendra Pratar, an executive director of Quramax Medical, a company that sold medicines produced by India’s Marion Biotech in Uzbekistan. He was handed a 20-year prison term, the above report said.
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The jail term announced by the court in the case ranges from two to 20 years. The court has found the convicts guilty of tax evasion, sale of substandard or counterfeit medicines, abuse of office, negligence, forgery, and bribery.
The report said besides former senior officials who were in charge of licensing imported medicines were also sentenced to lengthy terms.
The court, as per the report, also announced a compensation amounting to $80,000 (1 billion Uzbek sums) for each of the families of 68 children who died from consumption of the syrup, as well as to four other children who became disabled for their entire lives. Besides, the report said the parents of eight other children affected by the drug will get from $16,000 to $40,000.
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The court announced that the compensation money will be collected from seven of the convicts.
