A Dhaka court has sentenced Abdur Rob, director of the defunct Polychem Laboratories Limited, to one year imprisonment in a case filed over the manufacturing of toxic paracetamol syrup.
Twenty-six years after filing of the case, Dhaka Drug Court Judge Syed Kamal Hossain gave the verdict on Thursday afternoon.
The court also fined Abdur Rob Tk50,000, in default of which he will have to serve an extra three months in jail.
Soon after the verdict, Abdur Rob was granted ad-interim bail from the court on grounds that he would appeal against the verdict with a higher court.
Meanwhile, the court acquitted three other accused—Polychem’s manager ASM Golam Qader, pharmacists Mahbubul Alam and Delwar Hossain—from the case.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the verdict, Public Prosecutor Muhammad Nadim said they would appeal against the acquittal of the three accused.
Earlier on January 24, lawyers from both sides completed arguments in the case and the court fixed the date for delivery of the verdict. A total three prosecution witnesses and one defence witness testified before the court.
In 1992, then-director general of Drug Administration Abul Khayer Chowdhury filed a case against four pharmaceutical companies, including Polychem, accusing them of causing the deaths of 92 children.
Earlier that year, the 92 children died from renal failure after taking paracetamol syrup for fever.
On December 19, 1993, a case was filed against five officials of Polychem Laboratories Limited after the paracetamol syrup produced by them was found to contain the toxic industrial agent diethylene glycol. By the time charges were framed on March 6, 1994, one of the accused, managing director of the company Harun-Or-Rashid, had already died.
Due to a High Court stay order after petitions from the remaining accused, the case against Polychem Laboratories Limited had been pending till October, 2015.
A total nine people from Adflame Phramaceuticals and BCI (Bangladesh) Ltd have already been jailed for the manufacture of toxic paracetamol in 1992.
