Mobile court jails five for illegal bottling, marketing of drinking water

A mobile court yesterday fined owners and staff of four firms and sentenced them to different terms in jail for bottling and marketing drinking water illegally in the capital.

The court led by Executive Magistrate Sarwar Alam also shut the firms down for marketing unfiltered, dirty bottled water without a license.

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Without any license from Wasa, the companies collected water from Wasa's pipelines in an unhygienic condition, said Sarwar Alam told The Daily Star.

He said layers of algae and iron coated the bottles filled with water.  

Manager of Vital Drinking Water at Gopibagh was sentenced to three months' imprisonment and fined Tk 50,000; owner of Sabrina Drinking Water at Gopibagh Harunur Rashid was sentenced six months in jail and fined Tk 1 lakh; owner of Upline Fresh Water at Narinda Salman F Rahman got a two-year jail term and was fined Tk 1 lakh; staff of Bikrampur Products -- Sohel Rana and Tanjil Ahmed -- were jailed for three months and fined Tk 50, 000 each. The five were sent to jail.