The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) on Sunday upheld a High Court (HC) order that issued an injunction restraining two officials of the drug administration from continuing jobs for their negligence in dealing with a case filed for manufacturing toxic paracetamol that killed 28 children in 2009.
The two officials are Assistant Director of the Directorate General of Drug Administration Shafiqul Islam and Deputy Director Altaf Hossain.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order after hearing a petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), a rights organisation, seeking cancellation of an order of the Supreme Court's chamber judge that stayed the High Court order.
Advocate Manzill Murshid appeared in the Appellate Division for HRPB.
The High Court on July 18 this year issued the injunction restraining Shafiqul and Altaf from continuing their jobs.
Following a petition filed by the two officials, the Chamber Judge of the Supreme Court on July 23 stayed the High Court order.
Later, on August 08, 2019, Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of the Chamber Judge's order.
Sources said, from June to August in 2009, at least 28 children across the country died of renal failure allegedly caused by Rid Pharma's paracetamol syrups and suspensions.
Shafiqul Islam, the then superintendent of drug administration, filed the case with the Dhaka Drug Court the same year.
On November 28, 2016, the drug court acquitted all five of Rid Pharma's officials.
According to the trial court verdict, two officials of the drug administration involved in the case knowingly violated due procedure of law, and exhibited sheer negligence, inefficiency and incompetence in dealing with the case.
Shafiqul Islam and Altaf Hossain were drug superintendents in 2009.
Advocate Murshid said, the health ministry had suspended them on September 23, 2017 following the trail court observations.
But, the ministry withdrew the suspension order and reinstated them in the service on March 31 this year after simply rebuking them which was not an adequate punishment for them.
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