Bribery claim probe in toxic syrup case nearing end

India is close to finishing an investigation into a "comprehensive and exhaustive" complaint that a state drug regulator, in return for a bribe, helped switch samples of cough syrups linked to the deaths of children in Gambia before the samples were tested in India, the investigator told Reuters.

While the World Health Organization (WHO) linked the syrups made by India's Maiden Pharmaceuticals to the deaths of 70 children in the African country last year, India's government says tests at an Indian government laboratory showed the syrups were not toxic. Maiden has said it had not "done anything wrong".

Reuters reported in June that in a 29 April letter to the AntiCorruption Bureau in Haryana state, where Maiden has its factory, a lawyer named Yashpal accused the state's drug controller, Manmohan Taneja, of taking a bribe of 150 million from Maiden to help switch the samples before they went for tests at the government laboratory.

Reuters was unable to independently establish that any bribes were paid.