On Sunday, the Health Ministry had suspended an official of India’s apex drug regulatory body, following his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) earlier this week on charges of corruption.

The Ministry said, the regulatory body, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), has a “zero tolerance” policy towards corruption and is “committed to act stringently” against such acts.It stated that the official has been suspended “with immediate effect”. As informed by CBI, Dr. Naresh Sharma, Dy. Drug Controller (I), CDSCO (Hq), New Delhi was trapped and taken in custody by them on 16th August 2019 and legal investigation has been instigated.

Sharma joined CDSCO in November 2006 after over five years in Dabur Research Foundation, as per his profile on a professional networking website. From 2000 and 2001, he was in a research and development role at Cadila Pharmaceuticals and has also worked in R&D roles at two other pharma companies — JK Drugs and Pharmaceuticals and PaamPharma.

The exact details about Sharma’s arrest are unclear.CBI, in a release on August 16, had said it arrested another CDSCO official —a Himachal Pradesh drug inspector and four executives of an Amritsar or New Delhi-based pharma company in Rs 1 lakh bribery case.

The release stated that the transaction of bribe money would take place between the accused persons including Drug Inspector, CDSCO, Baddi, Solan (Himachal Pradesh); Managing Director of Amritsar-based private persons and others. It was also alleged that the public servant demanded a bribe of Rs. 1 lakh in lieu of closure of file associated to the said private firm and favorable action as the samples of dobutamine injection manufactured/ processed by the said firm were collected by CDSCO for testing and the said samples were failed during testing.

The CBI said that they caught the inspector accepting the bribe and subsequently, the firm’s executives were also arrested.