18 cheats held from Tangail medical jailed

A mobile court yesterday sentenced 18 brokers to three months' imprisonment each following their arrest on charge of cheating patients at Tangail Medical College Hospital.

Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested them from different wards of the hospital and produced them before the court on Wednesday.

Executive magistrates Abdur Rahim Sujon and Mohammad Kaiser Khasru awarded them the punishment under Section 79 (6) of the Touts Act of 1879.

The convicts are Mohammad Sabur Uddin, Hasinur Rahman, Hira Miah, Abu Sayeed, Aminur Rahman, Iqbal Hossain, Fazal Miah, Nasir Uddin, Abdul Baten, Swapan Miah, Abdus Salam, Abdullah Al Mamun, Russel Miah, Abdul Matin and Beauty Begum.

The magistrates told journalists that they had been getting complaints from the Tangail Medical College Hospital authorities that a brokers' ring had been harassing general patients in various ways for a long time.

The brokers would take patients to private clinics that do not have proper treatment facilities and quality doctors. They also sold sub-standard medicines to the patients at higher prices, they said.

Though drives were conducted against the brokers on several occasions previously, the situation has never improved, they added.