A mobile court in Boalmari, Faridpur has fined a charitable homeopathy medical center Tk 30,000 for storing and prescribing expired medicines to patients. Failure to pay the penalty will result in a one-year prison sentence.
Upazila Assistant Commissioner (Land) and Executive Magistrate Shibbir Ahmed led the drive on Thursday afternoon at the facility, which operates out of the Boalmari Municipality building.
During the raid, authorities discovered a shocking public health violation nearly 99 percent of the clinic's medicine stock was expired. Officials stated that the center had been distributing these unsafe drugs for an extended period. All seized expired medicines were immediately destroyed on site.
The center was established in 2012 under the initiative of the Bangladesh Homeopathy Board.
Condemning the negligence the Executive Magistrate Shibbir Ahmed said, “Storing such a massive quantity of expired medicines in a charitable institution and supplying them to patients is a sign of extreme irresponsibility. Because this poses a severe risk to public health we have taken strict legal action.”
The center's Director and Medical Officer Dr. Mihir Kant Pal was absent during the operation. The mobile court announced it will formally recommend the Bangladesh Homeopathy Board take departmental action against Dr. Pal for dereliction of duty.
Additionally medical assistant Sunirmal Basu and office assistant Pramila Karmakar were issued stern warnings. Both were required to sign a formal bond pledging not to engage in such irregularities in the future.
