5 Rid Pharma men must surrender within a week

The High Court yesterday directed five officials of Rid Pharmaceuticals Ltd to surrender to a trial court in seven days.

The lower court had acquitted them in a case filed for manufacturing toxic Paracetamol syrup that killed at least 28 children in 2009.

The bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil passed the order after accepting an appeal filed by the government in January challenging the lower court verdict.

The five accused are Rid Pharma's Managing Director Mizanur Rahman, directors Sheuli Rahman and Abdul Gani, and pharmacists Mahbubul Islam and Enamul Haque.

Assistant Attorney General Bashir Ahmed yesterday told The Daily Star that the five officials will have to surrender to the trial court concerned in seven days after receiving the HC order. He also said the officials can seek bail from the court on surrender.

From June to August in 2009, at least 28 children across the country died of renal failures caused for taking Paracetamol syrup and suspension allegedly manufactured by Rid Pharma.

On July 22, 2009, the Drug Administration sealed off Rid's factory in BSCIC area of Brahmanbaria following wide media coverage of the children's death.

In August the same year, Shafiqul Islam, the then superintendent of Drug Administration, filed the case with the Dhaka Drug Court and only five prosecution witnesses testified after the court indicted the five accused in March 2011.

On November 28 last year, Judge M Atoar Rahman of the drug court acquitted all the five officials observing that the prosecution utterly failed to prove the charge brought against the accused.

Negligence, inefficiency and incompetence of the Drug Administration in dealing with the case led to the acquittal of all the accused, the judge said in the verdict.

Two officials of Drug Administration involved in the case against Rid Pharmaceuticals knowingly violated due procedure of law, and exhibited sheer negligence, inefficiency and incompetence in dealing the case, the verdict said.

The two officials are Shafiqul Islam and Altaf Hossain. Both of them were drug superintendents in 2009. Shafiqul is now an assistant director of the Directorate General of Drug Administration while Altaf is a deputy director, said a DGDA director in December last year.

A day after the verdict pronouncement, Health Minister Mohammed Nasim said if the accused were acquitted due to negligence of the drug administration officials, appropriate actions would be taken against them after receiving the full verdict.

In January, a top official of the DGDA told The Daily Star that no action was taken against the officials as the matter was pending with the HC.