Rid Pharmaceuticals owner, officials acquitted of adulterated drugs charges

A court has acquitted Rid Pharmaceuticals owner and four others in a seven-year-old case over adulterated medicine that left several children dead.

The prosecution failed to prove the charges due to the 'inability and inefficiency' of the case’s investigator, a Dhaka drug court said in its verdict on Monday. 

Among the case’s accused, managing director Mizanur Rahman and his wife Sheuli Rahman, a director, were present in court. 

The others accused - Rid Pharmaceuticals director Abdul Gani, and pharmacists Mahbubul Islam and Enamul Huq – are absconding. 

At least 28 children died across the country in 2009 after consuming Paracetamol syrup made by Rid Pharmaceuticals, based in Brahmanbaria.

Assistant Director Shafiqul Islam of the Directorate of Drug Administration filed the case at the drug court and was in charge of the investigation.

“ … Shafiqul Islam did not follow proper procedure in filing the seizure list and results from the chemical tests,” the court said in its observation.

“The fact that he did not take the necessary steps for filing the case shows his inability and inefficiency.”     

Arrest warrants were issued by the drug court the day after Shafiqul Islam filed the case on Aug 10, 2009. Four more cases were then filed against Rid Pharmaceuticals in Brahmanbarhia and other places in the country.

Managing Director Mizanur Rahman surrendered on Oct 12 and was ordered to prison by a Dhaka court.

His wife Sheuli secured bail from High Court. The other three accused were absconding.  

The case details suggest the children died due to poisonous elements in Paracetamol manufactured by Rid Pharmaceuticals.

But investigator Shafiqul Islam in the chargesheet given to the court said chemicals tests could not trace the presence of the poisonous Diethylene glycol in the drug. The paracetamol was simply of low quality, he said.

Some of the witnesses who testified in the high-profile case are:  Dhaka Shishu (Children) Hospital Professor Dr AR Khan, the hospital’s Deputy Director HSK Alam, Drug Administration Assistant Director Md Altaf Hossain and the directorate’s Drug Testing Lab Analyst Md Abu Bakar Siddik. 

The same court had sentenced three, including the managing director and manager, from Adfame Pharmaceuticals to ten years of imprisonment over adulterated paracetamols.

In another case, it sentenced six officials from BCI Pharma to ten years in prison after 76 children died after consuming adulterated paracetamol syrup in 1992.