Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested six middlemen and the director of a hospital, for luring patients from government hospitals to a private hospital, and misappropriating money from the patients.
They were nabbed from near the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR) early Tuesday, in a RAB team raid.
A mobile court of RAB Executive Magistrate Palash Kumar Basu, sentenced each of the six brokers to six months in prison.
During the drive, the mobile court also fined two other people from a private hospital.
Saiful Islam, 38, a fake doctor and director from Shebika General Hospital in Shyamoli was sentenced to one year in prison and was fined Tk2 lakh by the mobile court.
The owner of the hospital, MM Shakhawat Hossain, was fined Tk4 lakh for not having regular doctors at the hospital and providing “substandard” services in the hospital, while manager of the hospital, Md Mohibullah, 30, was fined Tk2 lakh.
The six brokers are Md Rezaul Karim, 30, Manik Mia, 38, Billal Hossain, 50, Kalpana Akter, 40, Morzina Begum, 35, Aziron Begum, 42.
“We came to know during the raid that around 500 brokers work in the neighbourhoods of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Dhaka Shishu Hospital, and the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR) ,” said RAB-2 Company Commander Mohiuddin Faruque.
“They basically discourage patients from getting admitted to these government hospitals and spread rumours like doctors will cut off their legs, or no doctors are available, or that people get handicapped in those hospitals,” he said.
These middlemen earn anywhere from Tk5,000 to Tk50,000 from the private hospital for every patient they provide, added Mohiuddin Faruque.
