Over 100 medicine traders and employees were convicted by a mobile court on Saturday for manufacturing, marketing and hoarding of fake, illegal and unauthorised medicines in 13 markets near Babubazar area and Mitford Hospital in the capital.
Amid protests by the traders and clashes with Rapid Action Battalion members, executive magistrate Sharif Md Farhad Hossain, who is attached with Rab 10, led the day-long mobile court with support from the personnel of the Drug Administrations, Bangladesh Standard Testing Institute (BSTI) and Rab.
Of the convicts, 20 traders were jailed and 83 others were fined different amount of money by the mobile court that started its operation around 10am and continued till 7pm. Some 28 shops and storehouses were sealed off during the drive.
The magistrate said Tk12.55m was fined and a total of 80 cases were filed against the businessmen for possessing and hoarding of various fake, illegal and unauthorized and traders while a huge quantity of such medicines worth Tk50m were seized during the drive.
Meanwhile, several hundred traders and their employees staged demonstrations, protesting the drive by the mobile court and locked into clashes with the Rab during the drive, witnesses said.
Several people, including a Rab man, were injured in the clash, which erupted around 1pm when the mobile court started its conviction processes.
Witnesses said several hundred traders and employees of different medicine shops got organised and launched the agitation, adding that the clash ensued as the Rab tried to disperse the agitators.
However, the situation came under control after the leaders of the associations of the medicine markets intervened.
Soon after the drives were launched, hundreds of shops, mainly medicine shops, were closed, sources said.
Assistant Superintendent Fazle Rabbi of Rab 10 said they had to face difficulties in the operation as the traders kept their shops closed during the drive.
Meanwhile, Major Mamun, commander of the Lalbagh Company of Rab 10, said the drives against the manufacturing, marketing and hoarding of illegal medicines would be continued.
