Toxic Syrup: Indictment of Polychem Lab officials rescheduled for Oct 4

The Dhaka drug court yesterday re-fixed October 4 for framing charges against the managing director, a director and three employees of now-defunct Polychem Laboratories, in a case filed for manufacturing toxic paracetamol syrups.

Judge M Atoar Rahman passed the order after Public Prosecutor Shaheen Ahmed Khan appealed to the court to frame charges against all the accused, including two who are now on bail.

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Pharmacists Mahbubul Alam and Delwar Hossain got bail in 1994.

Earlier on September 6, the same court cancelled bails and issued arrest warrants against three other accused as they had repeatedly defied the court's order to appear before it.

They are managing director Harun-Or-Rashid, director Abdur Rob and manager ASM Golam Qader of the company.

The officers-in-charge of Lalbagh and Kamrangirchar police stations were asked to execute the warrants by yesterday and inform the court about it. But they failed to submit any reports on the execution.

The Directorate General of Drug Administration filed four cases against four pharmaceutical companies, including Polychem, in December 1992 and January 1993 after paracetamol syrups produced by them had been found tainted with industrial toxic diethylene glycol.

The drug manufacturers were accused of causing deaths of 92 children in 1992 alone, who died from renal failure after taking paracetamol syrups for fever.