6 jailed for 20 years

The Dhaka Drug Court yesterday handed down three directors and three employees of a now-defunct pharmaceutical company 20 years of imprisonment and fined Tk 4 lakh each in two cases for producing and marketing toxic paracetamol syrup.

The cases were filed by the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) in 1992 against BCI (Bangladesh) Ltd for using cheap, poisonous Di-Ethylene Glycol in two batches of its paracetamol syrup called Paracem that killed at least 76 children.

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An HC order, however, stayed proceedings of the cases in 1994, which resumed in 2011.

"The prosecution has proved the charges against the accused," Drug Court Judge M Ataur Rahman said, reading out the verdict.

They are sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment and fined Tk 2 lakh each in a case, said the judge.

The court's Public Prosecutor Shaheen Ahmed Khan said convictions in separate cases take effect separately as per the Jail Code.

"It means each of them will serve a total of 20 years in jail as they have been convicted in two cases and each of their fines will stand at Tk 4 lakh," he said, explaining.

Shahjahan Sarkar, one of the BCI directors and the only accused attending the trial, was sent to jail right away. The others have been absconding since the resumption of the trial.

The verdict said punishment of the others will take effect from the day of their arrest or surrender to the court.  

The others are Shamsul Haque, director; Nurun Nahar, director; ASM Badruddoza Chowdhury, executive director; Ayesha Khatun, quality manager; and Entazul Haque, production manager.

This is the second verdict in cases filed for adulteration of drugs. The first such verdict was delivered on July 22, 2014. The judgments are regarded milestones in ensuring quality drugs in the country's booming pharmaceutical industry.

Judge Abdur Rashid, who delivered the first verdict, found the highest punishment not "tougher" under the Drug (Control) Ordinance, 1982.

He sentenced an owner and two employees of Adflame Pharmaceuticals to 10 years in jail and fined Tk 2 lakh each in a case for the company's use of the same poisonous substance, Di-Ethylene Glycol, in its paracetamol brand Flammadol.

After last year's verdict, Law Commission initiated a probe to find out what took the cases over two decades to be resolved.

The probe body, headed by Justice Khairul Haque, found legal "manipulation" and sheer "indifference" by the DGDA, the country's drug regulatory body.

BCI is one of the five companies that used Di-Ethylene Glycol in their respective brands of paracetamol, prompting the DGDA to file cases against four of them in 1992. The companies are BCI, Adflame Pharmaceuticals, Polychem Laboratories and Rex Pharma, court sources said.

One of the companies was never sued as it had ties allegedly with the then BNP government, they said.

However, trial proceedings against all the four were stayed in 1994 following a High Court order. After an investigative report by The Daily Star in November 2009 revealed "corruption" among government agencies to save the accused in the cases, trial of three companies resumed immediately.

But trial of the BCI case could not be resumed until August 2011 as Abul Khair Chowdhury, a director of the DGDA and also plaintiff of the cases, disregarded the court's orders to testify in the cases for another two years.

Trial proceedings of the case against Polychem Laboratories are underway.

The accused in the case against Rex Pharma, filed with a Mymensingh Drug Court, were acquitted thanks to the prosecution's reluctance to produce relevant documents before the court.

Today's court proceedings

Accompanied by a couple of men, Shahjahan Sarkar appeared in the court room in a white punjabi. He has been on bail since 1994.

At 11:27am, the judge took his seat.

Shahjahan was called to the dock thereafter.

"He is a very famous spiritual figure in his area," said Shahidul Alam, identifying himself first as Shahjahan's brother and then as his cousin.

According to Shahidul, Shahjahan was not married, owns a house in the capital's Jigatola and his astana is in Motlob's Saduillapur village.

After the verdict was read out, Shahjahan got off the dock and took his seat again. Then he was seen wiping beads of sweat from his forehead.

Carrying handcuffs, two young policemen stood by his seat. He whispered something to the ears of the policemen and then, surrounded by his disciples, he left the court room at 11:45am.

Reaction of two victims' mother

This newspaper met Mukuly Begum, 45, in a Mirpur Paikpara Govt staff quarter in the evening of August 10. She had lost her 13-month-old daughter and six-year-old son in the span of six months in 1988. Both the children had taken the toxic paracetamol syrup.

"I'd love to hear the judge ordering the perpetrators to walk the gallows," said Mukuly. 

Still, while talking to a correspondent of this newspaper, Mukuly could not help crying in joy as the perpetrators were meted out 20 years of imprisonment.