The Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) reopened 24 drugstores of the Mitford medicine market on Thursday, which were sealed during a mobile court drive on September 28, on charges of selling “fake and expired” drugs.
Out of the 28 drugstores that were sealed that day, all except four were later able to produce legal documents to the mobile court magistrate.
Earlier, drug traders withdrew a nationwide day-long strike after Director General of DGDA Major General Jahangir Hossain Mollik assured leaders of Bangladesh Chemist and Druggist Samity (BCDS) of reopening the sealed stores and assisting in the release of the 21 detained drugstore owners.
However, Abu Bokor Khan Milon, general secretary of the Dhaka district unit of BCDS, told the Dhaka Tribune on Saturday that the release of all the drugstore owners would not be possible before Eid, as all legal documents for submitting bail petitions had not yet been collected from the deputy commissioner’s office.
He informed that out of the 21 arrested drugstore owners, only the ones who had been given 10 days’ jail time, had been released. Bail prayers for three more owners would be presented before the court on Sunday.
A mobile court on September 28 seized three truckloads of drugs worth more than Tk50m from the market near the Mitford Hospital in Dhaka, arrested 103 people, filed 74 cases, fined over Tk10.25m and sealed 28 stores.
Meanwhile, there are claims that the seized drugs were likely to return to the market, as a section of brokers who are close to few DGDA officials have allegedly been contacting drugstore owners at the Mitford medicine market to sell the seized drugs.
Seeking anonymity, several DGDA officials told the Dhaka Tribune that there were prior instances of reselling seized drugs. They alleged that drugs seized during a mobile court drive – that fined Dhanmondi drugstores Tk1.1m a few months ago – were later sold at the Mitford market.
Selim Barami, a director of DGDA, however denied allegations that seized drugs were being sold in the market again, saying no one could show a single instance of seized drugs being sold in the market by any DGDA officials.
Claiming that the DGDA had no connection to the seized drugs, Barami said the mobile court magistrate had sent the confiscated medicines to Rab offices.
He also informed that the sealed drugstores had been opened after sending documents regarding the drive to the court.
On the other hand, Monir Hossain, deputy secretary of BCDS, said the organisation was yet to receive the drug seizure list from the mobile court drive. Talking about the unregistered and banned drugs found during the drive, he said, “Renowned doctors had been prescribing these items. Nobody takes action against them. If there are so many agencies in the country; then how are these banned drugs coming?”
Regarding the seized drugs, Monir said the BCDS wants to donate the banned, but lifesaving drugs, to public hospitals or have them destroyed in the presence of their traders.
Sadekur Rahman, president of BCDS, also recently said, “The traders [who were arrested] cannot be held responsible for the fake, adulterated and sub-standard drugs that the mobile court had seized. They do not have any laboratory. How would they know which drug is fake and which is not? The drug companies are the main culprits.”
