Noida: Three employees of a city-based pharmaceutical firm, whose cough syrup is alleged to have led to the death of 18 children in Uzbekistan last year, were arrested on charges of manufacturing and sale of adulterated drugs, officials said.

The arrests were made after an FIR was lodged late Thursday night against five officials of Marion Biotech, including two of its directors, over a complaint by a drugs inspector of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), they said.

Police said the directors are at large and a search is underway to apprehend them.

Central and Uttar Pradesh drug authorities had checked samples of Marion Biotech products and found 22 of them to be “not of standard quality” (adulterated and spurious), according to the complainant drug inspector.

“Three people associated with Marion Biotech, which is located in Sector 67, were today arrested by the local Phase 3 police station officials. These people were engaged in preparation and sale of fake drugs which caused serious harm to public,” Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Noida) Rajiv Dixit said.

“Besides the three suspects who have been arrested, there are two more directors of the company for whom searches are underway and they will also be arrested soon. With their act, these people were endangering human life and human health,” Dixit said.

The officer added that a comprehensive legal investigation in the case will be carried out.

Phase 3 police station in-charge Vijay Kumar said those arrested have been identified as Tuhin Bhattacharya, head operation; Atul Rawat, manufacturing chemist; and Mool Singh, analytical chemist.

The absconding directors of the firm who have been booked are Jaya Jain and Sachin Jain, Kumar said.

The FIR was registered under Indian Penal Code sections 274 (adulteration of drugs), 275 (sale of adulterated drugs), 276 (sale of drug as a different drug or medical preparation) as well as under section 17 (misbranded drugs) and related violations of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.

Marion Biotech had come under the scanner in December last year for its cough syrup Dok-1 that is suspected to have led to the death of 18 children who consumed it in Uzbekistan after which the CDSCO launched a probe into the matter.

The production licence of the firm was suspended in January after inspections at its site by the central and the state drug authorities in the wake of the controversy.

On January 12, the World Health Organization (WHO) had issued a ‘medical product alert’, referring to two substandard (contaminated) products, identified in Uzbekistan and reported to it on December 22, 2022.

“The two products are AMBRONOL syrup and DOK-1 Max syrup. The stated manufacturer of both products is MARION BIOTECH PVT. LTD, (Uttar Pradesh, India). To date, the stated manufacturer has not provided guarantees to WHO on the safety and quality of these products,” the WHO had said then.

“Laboratory analysis of samples of both products, undertaken by national quality control laboratories of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan found both products contained unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and/or ethylene glycol as contaminants,” it had noted.

Mumbai: Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s estranged wife on Friday informed the Bombay High Court that she and her two minor kids have been thrown out of her mother-in-law’s residence in suburban Mumbai and they have no financial support.

Advocate Rizwan Siddiquee, appearing for the actor’s wife, told a bench of Justices A S Gadkari and P D Naik that the situation between the estranged couple was hostile.

The bench was hearing a habeas corpus (produce the person) petition filed by Nawazuddin Siddiqui seeking a direction to his estranged wife to produce his children before the court.

The 48-year-old actor had claimed that his wife had brought the children from Dubai to India without informing him and the change of location was affecting their education as they were not attending school.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s wife had been living with the children at her mother-in-law’s residence in Mumbai.

Last week, the high court had suggested the couple to amicably resolve issues related to the children and sought to know from the wife about their education.

On Friday, advocate Siddiquee told the court that the actor’s wife and her two children — a 12-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son — have been thrown out of the home with just Rs 81 in her possession.

The three are now living with a relative, he said, adding that while the boy was too young to say anything, the girl has categorically refused to meet her father.

The court directed advocate Siddiquee to put all these details in an affidavit and posted the matter for further hearing after a week.

Congress leader Pawan Khera

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday extended till March 17 the interim bail granted to Congress leader Pawan Khera in a case related to alleged objectionable remarks he made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Assam Police had arrested Khera in the case.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala adjourned the hearing to March 17 as it had run out of time.

The bench also pointed out that the replies of Uttar Pradesh and Assam were not on record and it will hear the plea after the Holi vacation.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Assam government, told the bench that the state has filed the reply to the petition of Khera and would like to argue the case whenever the court deems it fit to hear.

The court made clear that the interim bail granted to Khera will be extended till March 17 when it will hear the matter.

Earlier, on February 27, the court had extended the protection to the Congress spokesperson till Friday.

Khera was arrested from the Delhi airport after he was de-boarded from a plane that was supposed to take him to Raipur in connection with his alleged remarks against Modi made at a press conference in Mumbai on February 17.

The Congress leader obtained bail from a magisterial court here on February 23 after the CJI-led bench granted him the interim bail during an urgent hearing earlier in the day.

“In order to enable the petitioner (Khera) to apply for regular bail before the jurisdictional court, upon the FIRs being transferred to one jurisdiction, we direct that the petitioner shall be released on interim bail by the court of the competent magistrate at Delhi where he is to be produced this evening,” the apex court had said.

“The above order shall remain in operation till February 28,” it had said.

The apex court, which had listed the matter for hearing on February 27, had issued notices to Assam and Uttar Pradesh, seeking their responses to Khera’s plea for transferring and clubbing together three separate FIRs lodged against him in Assam and in Uttar Pradesh cities of Lucknow and Varanasi.

After dictating the order, the CJI had apparently expressed his displeasure with the Congress leader’s remarks and observed: “We have protected you (Khera), but there has to be some level of discourse.”

Senior lawyer A M Singhvi, appearing for Khera, had said the words taken at their face value, as reflected in the FIRs, do not establish any offence punishable under the sections invoked.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the state of Assam, had played the offending video in the court and claimed that Khera’s statement on Modi was a “deliberate attempt to denigrate a constitutional functionary”.

Singhvi, however, had also told the apex court that Khera had already apologised for his remarks and the offences alleged against him in the cases did not require arrest.

CHENNAI/HYDERABAD: In a span of two months, leaders of various political parties descended south to join two anti-BJP gatherings with an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, although the central characters differed a lot.

While Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has made his national ambitions amply clear, even rechristening his party to aid the process, his Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin insists he is already on the national scene and used  on March 1 to not only strongly pitch for the Congress as a force to reckon with in the efforts to dislodge the Narendra Modi-led dispensation at the Centre but also sought to shoot down the prospects of a Third Front.

Rao and Stalin have proved to be regional satraps who can take on the might of the BJP and both were seen in the company of top national leaders recently.

If the January 18 meeting convened by Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), the erstwhile Telangana Rashtra Samiti, in Khammam saw a  change in New Delhi next year, the Chennai rally organised to mark Stalin’s 70th birthday, harped on opposition unity.

While the BRS-led meeting stood determined on the need for a change of government at the Centre, the speakers at the Chennai event underlined the common connection of a socialist vision that binds them together while leaders including Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah batted for Stalin to take up a bigger national role.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said his party and the DMK shared a common social vision. It is anybody’s guess that the parties have set their eyes on making a rich harvest of the 40 parliamentary seats up for grabs in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Incidentally, in 2004, under then DMK chief, the late M Karunanidhi’s leadership, the alliance won all 40, giving UPA-I the much-needed numbers to form a government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Political analyst Ramu Suravajjula said the meeting organised in January by KCR, as Rao is popularly known, at Khammam was seen as the Telangana Chief Minister’s mega show of strength projecting his national ambitions. However, his political dilemma was on display at the public meeting, Suravajjula opined.

KCR neither spelt out the BRS agenda nor did he leave a hint about his political friends at the national level. The visiting leaders, which included Chief Ministers of Kerala and Delhi, Pinarayi Vijayan and Arvind Kejriwal, respectively, besides CPI top leader D Raja, also did not declare KCR as their leader, he said.

An observer of Tamil Nadu politics said a Third Front may not have its desired impact and pointed out the ambitious ‘Makkal Nala Kootani’ (People’s Welfare Front), headed by actor-politician Vijayakant’s DMDK, coming a cropper in the 2016 Assembly polls in that state, even as the AIADMK secured a rare successive term in a close fight involving the DMK.

The DMDK-led alliance included MDMK and the two Left parties, who are now part of the DMK-led bloc.

Suravajjula said, Stalin, during his birthday celebrations in Chennai, displayed political pragmatism. KCR got alienated in his fight against the BJP with Kharge and Stalin sending out a message loud and clear that no coalition meant to effectively take on the BJP can succeed without the Congress, he said.

Some insist that the Rao-led meeting largely spoke about dethroning the BJP-led Central government while the participants of the Chennai gathering made a conscious push to brand the bloc as pro-social justice and ideologically oriented.

Chennai-based political observer Sathyalaya Ramakrishnan said both groupings wanted to see the back of Modi in 2024 but were confused about who should lead. “There is a lot of confusion among the opposition parties on who should lead an alliance. These kinds of confusions and non-cooperation will lead Modi to form his own government for the third time next year,” he said.

Ramakrishnan indicated that even after the Khammam meeting, national leaders did not show interest in projecting KCR as a PM candidate, but that Abdullah had even supported the “Stalin for PM” slogan emanating mainly from Tamil Nadu and the DMK leader’s supporters.

Another political analyst Telakapalli Ravi said Congress was the major contrast between the two meetings. While the grand old party is a rival of the BRS in Telangana, Stalin gave a respectable place to Congress by inviting it to his birthday celebrations in Chennai, he said.

Congress MP Karti Chidambaram

New Delhi: Congress MP Karti Chidambaram has termed as “untrue” Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s statement that the parliamentary IT committee has given a “thumbs up” to the revised draft of the data protection bill, and said the bill has not been formally sent to the panel.

Karti Chidambaram’s party colleague and former chief of the parliamentary IT panel Shashi Tharoor called for widespread consultation on the bill.

Vaishnaw on Thursday said the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology has given a “thumbs up” for the revised draft of the data protection law.

Vaishnaw, a bureaucrat turned politician who presently handles the IT portfolio, said an advanced copy of the revised bill on data protection was shared with the committee.

Reacting to Vaishnaw’s remarks, Congress’ Lok Sabha MP and member of the IT panel Karti Chidambaram said, “IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said the Standing Committee on Communications and IT has approved the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022. As a Member of the Committee, I would like to categorically state that the Bill has not been approved.”

The draft bill was released for public consultation in November 2022 and in December, during a discussion on citizens’ privacy and data security, the Committee also held a preliminary discussion on the draft bill, he said, adding that members raised a number of issues with the draft.

Parliamentary procedure mandates that a bill after introduction in the House, the Speaker or Chairman may recommend it for examination to the Committee, Chidambaram said on Twitter on Thursday night.

“The DPDP Bill has not been formally sent to the Committee & hence a ‘big thumbs up’ claimed by Ashwini Vaishnaw is untrue,” he said.

Vaishnaw, while speaking in Mumbai had said, “I would like to share some good news that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT and Communications… before this bill is taken to the Parliament, they have given a big thumbs up.”

In 2021, the government withdrew an earlier version of the same bill after a slew of changes suggested by a Joint Parliamentary Committee and promised to come up with a new bill, which it did late last year.

Reacting to Chidambaram’s remarks, former chief of the IT panel and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said, “That’s worrying. A Bill of this importance should benefit from widespread consultation & support to be effective.”

“Hope it is formally referred to the Committee. After so many delays a couple of months won’t matter,” Tharoor said Friday.

Bhubaneswar: A mild earthquake of 3.8 magnitude on the Richter Scale occurred in Odisha’s Koraput district on Friday morning, according to the National Centre for Seismology.

The earthquake took place at 5.05 am at a depth of 5 km. The epicentre was 129 km east of Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh, it said.

However, there was no report of any casualty or damage to properties.

According to the Koraput district administration, tremors were felt in Narayanpatna, Laxmipur and Bandhugaon areas and people came out of their houses in panic.

MYSURU: Former chief minister BS Yediyurappa may have announced his retirement from electoral politics, but he continued to be the star attraction at the inauguration of BJP’s Vijaya Sankalpa Yatra at MM Hills on Wednesday. Though national BJP president JP Nadda, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and other top leaders were on the dais, chants went up for Yediyurappa. They were so loud that Nadda had to appeal to the audience to listen to him. When the crowd continued, he pacified them saying Yediyurappa would address them.

Later taking the mic, Yediyurappa said BJP will return to power with an absolute majority. Congress, without any leaders of stature, is under the illusion of winning the April/May Assembly election, while BJP is going strong under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he added.

He appealed to party workers to take programmes of the central and state governments to the doorsteps of the people.  

BJP made BSY cry, he is boiling inside: Siddaramaiah
“BJP insulted and disrespected its senior leader BS Yediyurappa and literally made him cry. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has no moral right to say that Congress misbehaved with Mallikarjun Kharge,” said Opposition leader Siddaramaiah in Belagavi on Wednesday.

Hitting out at Modi for saying Congress disrespected its leaders, Siddaramaiah said, “Yediyurappa is boiling inside and leaders of BJP know it.”

He said, “It has been three months since the 7th  Pay Commission was formed, but the government has not reserved funds for it in the budget. The government system will not work if employees go on strike. The CM should take measures to implement the commission as only 20 days are left for the announcement of the model code of conduct.”