Toxic paracetamol: Appellate Division upholds bar on two drug officials from job
At least 28 children died in 2009 after consuming paracetamol syrup manufactured by Rid Pharmaceuticals
The Appellate Division yesterday upheld the High Court restriction on two drug officials from continuing their jobs for their negligence in dealing with a case filed over the death of 28 children from toxic paracetamol syrup intake.
The officials are Assistant Director Shafiqul Islam and Deputy Director Altaf Hossain of the Directorate General of Drug Administration. They were drug supervisors in 2009.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, passed the order in response to a writ petition.
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Advocate Manzill Murshid stood for the petition in the court.
At least 28 children across the country died of renal failure after the intake of Rid Pharma's paracetamol syrups and suspensions from June to August in 2009.
On July 18 this year, the High Court issued an order restricting the two officials from continuing their jobs because of negligence and incompetence.
On September 23, 2017, the health ministry had suspended the two officials following a High Court order. But the ministry reinstated them in the service on March 31 this year after simply rebuking them.
After the children's death, Shafiqul Islam, the then superintendent of drug administration, filed the case with the Dhaka Drug Court.
On November 28, 2016, the drug court acquitted all five officials of Rid Pharma.
But according to the court verdict, the state had failed to prove the allegation due to sheer negligence, inefficiency and incompetence of the plaintiffs of the case – Shafiqul Islam and Altaf Hossain – in dealing with the case.
