A mobile court has sentenced 10 middlemen as well as the owner of a private hospital, to prison for influencing patients to shift from a government hospital to a private one.
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Executive Magistrate Sarwar Alam sentenced four of them to 6 months of imprisonment and the rest to 3 months in prison and fined Tk6 lakh each on Wednesday.
The convicts are Abdur Razzak, owner of the private hospital Prime Orthopedic & General Hospital at Mohammadpur, Babul Hossain, Akash, Dulal, Kamal Hossain, Zakir, Mokarram Hossain, Dudh Mia, Mobarak Khan, Billal and Faruk Hossain.
Private hospital owner Abdur Razzak and the 10 middlemen were arrested on Wednesday afternoon in Dhaka.
RAB-2 Company Commander Mohiuddin Faruque told Dhaka Tribune that the patients were being lured by the men with promises of better treatment at the private hospital.
“Patients who were admitted at National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR) were being tempted and admitted to the private hospital,” he said.
“We targeted three of them for such activities and caught them while they were dealing with patients,” he said, adding that the others had been detained for helping those three.
Meanwhile, a drive is going on to nab a few others.
