A mobile court of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) sentenced five fake dentists to one-year imprisonment during a drive at Karwan Super Market in the capital on Thursday.
They were sentenced for practising without approval of the government.
The mobile court also fined them Tk1 lakh each and seized their equipment.
A team of the elite force led by Md Didarul Alam, deputy director of RAB 2, conducted a drive at Garden Dental Care, Al-Madina Dental Care and Al-Hera Dental Care and Zannat Dental Care and gave verdict against the fake dentists.
The convicts are Illias Hossain of Garden Dental Care, Hasanur Rahman and Md Akhter Hossain of Al-Madina Dental Care, Tofazzal Hossain of Al-Hera Dental Care and Alauddin Hossain of Zannat Dental Care.
Md Didarul Alam, deputy director of RAB 2, said the mobile court had given verdict against them as they had been practising without having any registration from the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC).
“Most of them have passed the SSC only, but doing practice which is risky for general people,” he said.
The fake doctors, however, said they had done a short course on dental treatment and took the certificates from the Desh-Bangla Kollyan Samity.
Swapan Kumar Tapadar, deputy director (hospital) of the Director General for Health Service, said: “I did not hear about the Desh Bangla Kollayan Samity, which provides dental certificates. None of them are registered by the BMDC.
Nur-e-Alam, who visited one of the fake dentists, said: Few days back, I took my nephew Nisha to Zannat Dental Care. Fake doctor Alauddin took Tk6,000 for dental filling, but it broke within few days.”
Akhter Hossain, one of the convicts, said: “After the SSC, I did a short dental diploma course from the Desh Bangla Kollyan Samity. I asked them if I could consider myself as a doctor, then the officials said that I can use the designation before my name.” He mentioned his monthly income as Tk 25,000.
Executive Magistrate AHM Anwar Pasha said: “There was a risk of getting affected with aids and other diseases as equipment used in treatment at those clinics are not washed properly.”
