The Madhya Pradesh police with the help of Chennai police on Thursday have arrested the Tamil Nadu-based owner of Sresan Pharmaceutical manufacturer, the cough syrup company linked to the deaths of over 20 children in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

A seven-member team from the Madhya Pradesh Police, led by Jitendra Jaat, Deputy Superintendent of Police, arrested Ranganathan from his residence within the Ashok Nagar police station limits in Kodambakkam.

Ranganathan Govindan, owner of the company, was taken into custody by Madhya Pradesh police in Chennai late last night as investigations are going on over manufacturing of the toxic Coldrif cough syrup.

Chhindwara Superintendent of Police Ajay Pandey said that Ranganathan would be produced before a Chennai court today and then taken to Chhindwara once a transit remand is obtained, ANI reported.

Ranganathan is charged with adulteration, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and endangering the safety of children, said officials.

Two more children from Madhya Pradesh have succumbed to kidney infections caused by the consumption of a "contaminated" cough syrup, taking the death toll to 22, an official said on Thursday.

Madhya Pradesh deputy chief minister and health minister Rajendra Shukla said on Wednesday that twenty children had died in the state after consuming Coldrif cough syrup, while five others were still being treated.

Several states across the country have banned the sale and distribution of the cough syrup.

The Chennai-based firm was supplying the Coldrif cough syrup to Puducherry, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and a few other regions.

Laboratory tests in Tamil Nadu confirmed that the cough syrup contained harmful substances, prompting the Madhya Pradesh government to ban the sale of the product along with all other medicines produced by Sresan Pharmaceuticals, the Tamil Nadu-based manufacturer.

The sample was “found to be adulterated, since it contains Diethylene Glycol (48.6% w/v) which is a poisonous substance which may render the contents injurious to health,” said the report.

The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) issued urgent instructions to drug inspectors to seize existing stocks, halt further sales, and collect samples from other batches for testing.

Diethylene glycol is used in the manufacture of printing ink, glue, brake fluid, and lubricants. Its consumption can cause severe kidney, liver, and nervous system damage in humans.

Children are more vulnerable because even tiny amounts of this chemical can be fatal for them. The symptoms begin with nausea, abdominal pain, and reduced urination. In severe cases, this progresses rapidly to acute kidney failure, seizures, and death.

Investigations so far have revealed that Sresan Pharmaceuticals was first registered as a private firm in 1990. The company was struck off the Ministry of Corporate Affairs register, yet it continued operating under a proprietary structure, raising serious questions about regulatory oversight, NDTV reported.

The children died over the past month after consuming cough medicine containing toxic diethylene glycol in quantities nearly 500 times the permissible limit, officials say.

The Respifresh and RELIFE syrups also contain diethylene glycol, according to a public alert by Gujarat and other states on Wednesday that described it as "a toxic chemical that can cause serious poisoning, including kidney failure, neurological complications and even death, especially among children".

WHO advises against cough and cold medicines for children

The UN health agency said the country had a "regulatory gap" in screening locally-sold syrup medicines, Reuters reported.

By law, Indian drugmakers must test each batch of raw materials and the final product. Exports of cough syrups have required another layer of tests at government-mandated laboratories since 2023 following the deaths of over 140 children in Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon linked to Indian syrups.

The WHO said earlier it would assess the need for a Global Medical Products Alert on Coldrif syrup once it received official confirmation from Indian authorities. The U.N. health agency is continuing to advise against the use of cough and cold medicines for children. Earlier the country's drug controller general, Rajeev Raghuvanshi, said the regulator had found serious lapses at factories making the drugs in checks that showed they failed to test every batch of medicinal ingredients as required.

Ethylene or diethylene glycol toxins were found in Indian-made cough syrups that killed children in Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon since 2022, and 12 children in India in 2019, damaging the image of the world's third-biggest drug-manufacturing country by volume.

India's pharmaceutical industry, exceeded in size only by the U.S. and China, is valued at $50 billion. More than half of its value comes from exports.

India supplies 40 per cent of generic medicines used in the US, and more than 90 per cent of all medicines in many African nations.