A mobile court yesterday sealed off two vermicelli and a cosmetics factories in Old Dhaka for manufacturing products in violation of rules and jailed two of the owners for one year each.
The jailed persons are Kazi Suman, 24, owner of a vermicelli factory, and Mohammad Hossain, 32, owner of the cosmetics factory. The court, led by Executive Magistrate AHM Anwar Pasha, also fined them Tk 1 lakh each.
In another drive, the same court fined Haji Abdul Hai, manager of the other vermicelli factory, Tk 50,000 and seized around 100 mounds of vermicelli.
The vermicelli factories produced the food item in an unhygienic environment and used substandard ingredients and the labels of reputed companies, while the cosmetics factory used substandard preservatives and soybean oil in producing hair oil.
Suman had been running his business on the first floor of a building on Champatuli lane for four years, said Anwar. He had been selling vermicelli in the packets of popular brands including Kulson, he added.
Suman was also fined last year for the same offence.
Vermicelli is an essential food item for the Muslims to celebrate Eid.
The mobile court found the cosmetics factory on the same floor for producing low quality hair oil and creams. The magistrate said the owner Hossain and his father had been running the business for over 15 years.