Jammu, Oct 2: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the Chief Secretary, J&K to direct the concerned authority to take appropriate legal action after conducting an enquiry into a complaint related to four children from Ramnagar tehsil of Udhampur district, who allegedly suffered permanent disabilities after consuming contaminated cough syrup during the 2019–20 tragedy.
The direction has come on a complaint pursued by a social activist Sukesh C Khajuria, seeking adequate compensation, medical care and rehabilitation for the four surviving children.
The NHRC has directed the concerned authority to conduct an enquiry in association with the complainant and victim, take appropriate action in accordance with law and inform the complainant about the action taken.
An Action Taken Report (ATR) has been sought by the Commission within four weeks.
“The complaint intimation dated November 13, 2025, received from Sukesh C Khajuria in respect of children across Jammu and Kashmir was placed before the Commission on September 24, 2026. Upon perusal of the same, the Commission directed: this complaint be transmitted to the concerned authority for appropriate action as per law. The authority concerned is directed to take appropriate action after enquiry associating the complainant/victim and to inform him or her of the action taken in the matter and also submit a report to the Commission within four weeks,” stated Assistant Registrar (Law), NHRC in a communique dated September 24, 2026, addressed to the Chief Secretary, J&K.
The complaint stated that although the four children survived the tragedy, they were left with permanent disabilities. Disability certificates issued by the Chief Medical Officer, Udhampur, were also placed on record in support of their cases.
The matter relates to Cold Best-PC syrup manufactured by Digital Vision, Kala Amb, Himachal Pradesh.
Laboratory findings cited in the complaint had detected 34.24 percent w/v (weight per volume) Diethylene Glycol (DEG) in a tested sample of the syrup. DEG is a toxic industrial chemical and is unsafe for human consumption.
The contaminated cough syrup tragedy had earlier resulted in the deaths of children in the Ramnagar area during December 2019 and January 2020.
In the earlier proceedings, the NHRC had found lapses on the part of the J&K Drugs Department and directed payment of Rs 3 lakh compensation to the Next of Kin (NoK) of the deceased children.
The challenge to the NHRC order was subsequently dismissed by the High Court of J&K and Ladakh.
Khajuria, in a press statement, maintained that while compensation was granted in the cases involving deaths, the surviving children, who were left with lifelong disabilities also required adequate financial assistance, continuing medical care and rehabilitation.
He has further sought fixation of responsibility for regulatory lapses and strengthening of the drug-quality testing, surveillance and enforcement mechanism so that such tragedies are not repeated.
The latest intervention of the NHRC has once again brought the condition of the surviving victims before the human rights watchdog and placed the matter before the J&K authorities for enquiry and appropriate action.
The NHRC, at this stage, has ordered an enquiry and sought an Action Taken Report within four weeks. The Commission has not yet awarded compensation to the four surviving children in the present proceedings.
