"The material available in record further reveal that M/S Eastern India Pharmaceutical Laboratory (EIPL) in a camouflaged way was manufacturing and selling an intoxicant beverage in the name of EPRRCARM," Justice Naidu said in the report which was tabled in Odisha Assembly by Excise and Cooperation Minister Damodar Rout.
Following the deaths of 41 people after consuming the EPEECARM between February 6 and February 9, Odisha government had set up a one man commission of inquiry headed by Justice Naidu, a former Orissa High Court judge on February 10, 2012.
The then excise minister A U Singhdeo had to resign from the Naveen Patnaik cabinet owing moral responsibility over the incident.
While dubbing the private phamaceutical company as the 'villain' of the entire episode, the commission in its report said, "It gives an impression that the excise officers were more eager to calculate the excise duty on the alcohol used and never bothered about the quality or safety of the product manufactured."
Stating that the drugs department was completely inactive, the commission report said there was no action on its part to collect the finished product and test it to ascertain whether the same satisfied the established standard or quality and possessed medicinal value.
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