Full verdict in Rid Pharmaceuticals case out
The full judgment of the said case is now out. A Dhaka court on November 28 had found two officials of the Drug Administration guilty of negligence in the Rid Pharmaceutical case which supplied toxic paracetamol syrup that killed at least 28 children in 2009. The two accused were drug superintendents at the time and were found to have dealt with the case against the accused company with incompetence and inefficiency, which ultimately led to the acquittal of all the five accused. The manner in which the case was handled left much to be desired. From the very beginning, it smacked of a deliberate half-hearted approach by the officials that eventually led to a weak prosecution and the accused going free as the case built up against them was flawed.
This sort of negligence and half-hearted effort by the drug watchdog body is totally unacceptable. That it has taken seven years for the victims' families to wait for justice is painful enough.
We had been assured by the minister of health that action would be taken after the full judgment was published. Now that it has been, we expect legal actions would follow immediately. It is time to rectify the wrongs of the past and let the parents of those unfortunate children have some solace. They have had to wait too many years to bring this sad chapter in their lives to a close. The officials who have been named in the court report must face the full brunt of the law and an example must be set that playing with people's health will not go unpunished.
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