Bangladesh: Six people sentenced over deadly toxic paracetamol syrup for children

Six senior employees of a drug company were sentenced on 17 August after a Bangladesh court found them guilty of producing toxic paracetamol syrup resulting in numerous children's deaths.

The case that had been dragging on for years finally came to a closure after a drug court's ruling in capital Dhaka convicted Shahjahan Sarker, former director of now dissolved BCI Pharmaceuticals (Bangladesh), and his five other colleagues.

"They were given the penalties for adulterating paracetamol syrup used for babies," prosecutor Nadim Miah told AFP News.

Sarker and his five other employees were all given a 10-year prison term and fined 200,000 takas (£128,259) each.

While Sarker was in court to hear the verdict, his five other employees were sentenced in absentia since they remain on the run since being charged in 2009.

The case revealed the scandal where it emerged that children's medicine paracetamol was mixed with toxic diethylene glycol –a chemical commonly used in leather production.

The medicine is usually produced using propylene glycol, which is believed to be over 10 times more expensive than the cheaper alternative diethylene glycol.

The manipulation led to several thousand cases of kidney failures in children in the 1990s.

Nearly 76 children were reported dead in 1992 alone after consuming the toxic medicine.