A mobile court sealed off a blood bank for irregularities at the capital’s Bakshibazar while one of its owners and two employees were jailed for different terms.
The drive was led by Executive Magistrate AHM Anwar Pasha and was accompanied by personnel of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and members of the Drugs administration which also seized 64 bags of blood from the blood bank named “Dhaka Blood Centre.”
The owner was identified as Mohammad Khokon, 48, of Noakhali, and was jailed for two years while each of the two employees were identified as Md Rabiul Islam, 19 and Rasel Hossain, 22. They were served one year jail terms for collecting, preserving and selling blood through improper ways leaving public health into danger.
Witnesses said the blood bank had been collecting blood from drug addicts for last four years as the mobile court found a heroin addict was selling blood during the drive.
Selim Miah, relative of an ailing patient admitted at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, was found purchasing a bag of blood from the centre.
The blood bag bore a medical report by a doctor, although the blood centre did not have any qualified doctor or a nurse.
Rabiul Islam, 19 had been used to forge the signature of an MBBS doctor.
He admitted that he used to sign as a doctor on the body of the blood bag conducting test of only the blood group although at least five tests, including HIV, are mandatory for collecting blood from any person.
Swapan Kumer Tarafder, deputy director of the Health Directorate, said although the blood bank was registered, it had no experienced doctor while they had been collecting and selling blood without even testing the blood of the donors.
Magistrate Pasha said: “They had been making two bags of blood out of a single bag of blood and some employees of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital are suspected to be involved with the illicit business.”
During the drive, owner Mohammad Khokon confessed that he had been a joint owner of the bank for the last 13 months while two other partners were Sirajul Islam Badal and Md Sarwar, a pathologist and an employee of the DMCH.
The mobile courts of Rab so far sealed off 27 blood centres and jailed 51 persons for their illicit acts.