Drug official gets bail

Abul Khair Chowdhury, the incarcerated government official of the country's drug regulatory body, was released on bail yesterday after his superior gave an assurance to the Dhaka Drug Court that Khair would follow the court's decisions.

In an application produced by the Public Prosecutor Shaheen Ahmed Khan, Jahangir Hossain Mollik, director general of the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA), pledged to help make his subordinate obey court orders.

On August 6, the court had sent DGDA assistant director Khair to jail for defying 18 of its consecutive orders passed since March 2012, asking him to testify in two cases Khair filed in 1992 against BCI Bangladesh Ltd for producing toxic paracetamol syrup that allegedly killed 76 children.

Proceedings of the cases had been stayed for 19 years due to a High Court order that came in 1994.

However, lawyers yesterday considered the application not sound, as the DG only pledged to ensure Khair's being produced before the court. It did not clarify as to whether the documents supporting his testimony would also be brought in.

 The public prosecutor, on Thursday, had specifically pointed out before the court that Khair had not brought with him documents to support his testimony.

This ambiguity gives rise to concerns about the cases' fate as the DGDA, in October 2011, had officially informed The Daily Star of losing all documents related to the cases. By documents, it meant results of the tests detecting the presence of the toxic element.

"Samples of paracetamol syrups were collected from Shishu Hospital following a verbal order by the then director general of Directorate [General] of Drug Administration. Currently, there is no record in the department on the samples collected," the DGDA had officially told The Daily Star.

The Daily Star in March 2011 had requested the DGDA through an application for access to the documents under the Right to Information Act.

The request had been made after the newspaper retrieved documents from individuals about the drug tests, which were accurate beyond suspicion since tests done by the government and the individuals matched. The government test was also overseen by a representative from WHO.

The adulteration of paracetamol syrup allegedly continued between 1982 and 1992 and killed an estimated 2,700 children. But this heinous crime remained beyond prosecution despite proof being there.

An investigation by The Daily Star in 2009 found deliberate destruction of evidence, manipulation of legal system and corruption by the DGDA, preventing justice from being delivered.

The probe subsequently led to the resumption of the prosecution process, with owners of one company, Adflame Ltd, being convicted in July this year.

The drug court yesterday fixed August 18 for Khair to produce documents required for prosecuting the six accused in both the cases against BCL Bangladesh.