Posing as patients, NSI team exposes fake doctor in Babuganj; Tk 50,000 and Tk 1 lakh fines imposed
Photo: Collected
A mobile court drive in Babuganj, Barishal, has fined a fake doctor Tk 50,000 and a diagnostic centre operating without a pathologist Tk 1 lakh.
Upazila Nirbahi Officer and Executive Magistrate Asma Ul Husna said the fines were imposed at the end of the drive around 11pm on Thursday.
Those fined were Taslima Akter Anni, owner of M/s Anni Pharmacy in the upazila’s Madhabpasha Bazar, and Sabbir Sardar, manager of Pallabi Digital Diagnostic Lab in the same area.
The National Security Intelligence (NSI) said the drive ran from 6pm to 11pm.
According to the agency, a team from its Barishal office posed as patients and received treatment at Anni’s chamber in Madhabpasha Bazar. Although she had no MBBS or BDS degree, she had long been treating various illnesses of mothers and children. Expired medicines were also found in her own pharmacy.
For these offences, the executive magistrate of the mobile court on the drive, the Babuganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer, fined her Tk 50,000 under Section 53 of the Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009. She was also made to sign a bond pledging not to provide treatment in future.
The court then went to Pallabi Digital Diagnostic Centre in the same area. It found that various tests were being carried out and reports issued there without the necessary certificates or a pathologist; the laboratory’s environment and management were also substandard. For this, the centre’s manager, Md Sabbir Sardar, was fined Tk 1 lakh.
Upazila Resident Medical Officer Dr Turjya Adhikari and members of Biman Bandar police station were also present during the drive.
UNO Asma Ul Husna said, ‘Although Babuganj is a small upazila, some unscrupulous people here are cheating ordinary people in the name of medical care. Such irregularities will not be tolerated in any way. Drives like this will continue against fake doctors, unapproved diagnostic centres and those involved in fraud in the name of medical care.’
District angle
In Wazirpur in the same district, a mobile court sentenced a fake doctor named Rezaul Karim to one year’s simple imprisonment on 29 April 2025, Desh Rupantor reported that day.
Sources
Original report: Bangladesh Pratidin
Background sources: Desh Rupantor, 29 April 2025
