Trial of Rid Pharma finally starts
Three years into the deaths of 28 children from consumption of Rid Pharma's paracetamol syrup, the trial of the high-profile case finally began in a Dhaka court yesterday.
Five officials including the company's managing director, stand accused in the case, facing charges of using toxic diethylene glycol in the syrups -- brand named Ridaplex Syrup and Temset Suspension.
If convicted, the accused persons may get up to 10 years in jail, according to the relevant laws.
The 28 kids, aged between two and six years, died in Dhaka, Sylhet, Narayanganj and Brahmanbaria between June and August 2009 after taking those syrups, case documents say.
A government test concluded that the syrups lacked specified manufacturing standards, Shafiqul Islam, an official of the Drug Administration, stated in the case.
Following the test, the government seized all the syrups from the market and shut the company's factory in Brahmanbaria.
Charges against the five were framed in March last year. But the trial could not open as Shafiqul, the complainant of the case, did not appear before the court on any of the seven dates fixed by it earlier, court sources said.
Shafiqul, who was involved in the test of those syrups, is the first prosecution witness in the case.
During his deposition at the court of Judge Md Abdul Majid, Shafiqul yesterday described how he and some of his colleagues probed the deaths of the children.
Prime accused Mizanur Rahman, managing director of Rid Pharma, and his wife Sheuly Rahman, a director of the company, were present in court. They are now out on bail.
The three other accused -- Abdul Gani, another director of the company, and two of its pharmacists, Mahbubul Islam and Enamul Haque -- are absconding.
DEPOSITION
In his deposition, Shafiqul said he came to know from news reports on July 21, 2009, that a number of children had died of renal failure at Shishu Hospital in the capital allegedly after taking the Rid Pharma syrups.
On the same day, the then director of the Drug Administration asked him and one of his colleagues, Mohammad Altaf Hossain, to probe the matter.
As directed, they met the then director Prof AR Khan of Shishu Hospital and requested him to supply samples of the syrups.
The hospital authorities supplied them with a sample each of Ridaplex Syrup and Temset Suspension, he told the court.
He will continue his deposition on March 21.
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