Overview
- In Chhindwara’s Bichhua, five-month-old Ruhi Minote was declared brought dead at the community health centre after her family administered an Ayurvedic cough syrup and other medicines bought without a prescription.
- Police in Bichua registered an inquest under Section 194 BNSS, questioned two operators of the Kurethe Medicals shop, and coordinated with health and state food-and-drug teams that seized samples for laboratory analysis.
- A separate case was reported in Mauganj, where a five-month-old boy died after his mother gave him cough syrup purchased from a local store, prompting the sealing of the shop, an FIR against its owner, and a post-mortem examination.
- For the Bichhua case, the family told police they had bought Kasamrit cough syrup and sachets of medicines from a private outlet after no doctor was available at the government facility.
- These developments follow recent Coldrif-linked child fatalities in Madhya Pradesh, for which the state banned the product and an SIT has arrested six people, while laboratory findings and post-mortem reports for the new deaths are awaited.