Jaipur: Condemning health minister Gajendra Singh Khimsar’s alleged remark holding parents responsible for the deaths of children who were administered cough syrup containing dextromethorphan hydrobromide, the father of Nityansh, a boy from Sikar who died after consuming the cough syrup, alleged a “conspiracy to hide the truth” and said he was ready for exhumation of his son’s body for a postmortem.
Mukesh Sharma, the boy’s father, reached Jaipur Thursday and stated that health department officials came to his home, tore off the cough syrup bottle’s label, and took it away in the name of “investigation”.
“Multiple children in different districts being harmed by the same batch of the same medicine cannot be a coincidence. It points towards govt negligence, tampering with evidence, and a conspiracy to hide the truth,” he said.
Demanding a fair investigation into the deaths of children, he said, “If the govt needs to exhume Nityansh’s body for a postmortem, we are ready for it. We want people to know the truth about the quality of the cough syrup so that further deaths of children can be prevented, by strengthening the testing process of the medicines under the free medicine scheme,” said Sharma. “The health minister is holding parents of the children responsible for their deaths, which is not fair,” he said.
Nityansh died on Sept 29, allegedly after consuming cough syrup containing dextromethorphan hydrobromide. His family buried him on the same day in Sikar. The govt did not conduct a postmortem to ascertain the cause of the child’s death.
Rajasthan Swasthya Sudhar Sangharsh Samiti and Rajasthan Mazdoor Naujawan Kisan Sabha are now jointly raising the demand for justice in the cases of deaths of four children—Nityansh, Anas, Samrat, and Tirthraj—and in complications in other children allegedly due to the cough syrup.
“Between Sept 20 and Oct 5, a series of child deaths and illnesses emerged in Bharatpur, Sikar, Jaipur, and Banswara districts. Different families reported that they received the same batch KL 25/148 (June 2025) of cough syrup containing dextromethorphan hydrobromide from Kaysons Pharma under the chief minister’s free medicine scheme,” said Ashutosh Ranka, coordinator of the samiti.
They demanded that within ten days the government must take steps to initiate a thorough probe into medicines manufactured by Kaysons Pharma. All postmortems and investigations should be conducted by an independent medical and judicial panel, with videography, and reports should be made public, they said. They also demanded compensation of at least Rs 25 lakh to each deceased child’s family.
