Indian court discharges former drug regulator official in 2022 Biocon bribery case

what happened

A special CBI court in New Delhi has discharged Dr. S. Eswara Reddy, former joint drugs controller at CDSCO, and three other accused in a 2022 bribery case linked to Bengaluru-based Biocon Biologics. The report comes from Mint, distributed by HT Digital Content Services.

The court said the allegations did not even raise mere suspicion. The investigating agency failed to show when, where and how Reddy allegedly sought 9 lakh rupees. According to the judge, there was no direct or circumstantial evidence of a bribe demand, which is required under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The court also found no criminal conspiracy, noting that a proposal to waive phase-III trials for an insulin aspart injection reached the expert committee through routine official emails without Reddy's involvement.

Reddy said he had always trusted the judicial process and that the order brought substantial relief. Queries sent to the health ministry, Biocon, CDSCO and the CBI remained unanswered at the time of publishing.

why it matters

For markets the story is mostly local, since it concerns the legal outcome of a case rather than Biocon's financial results. Still, the discharge may ease some regulatory uncertainty for a company that depends on approvals from India's drug regulator.

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