A mobile court has sealed off a blood centre at the city’s Bakshibazar and jailed one of its owners and two employees and seized 64 bags of blood from the blood centre on Saturday.The blood centre is run by some employees of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), sources said.Executive Magistrate AHM Anwar accompanied with the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel and Drug Administrations officials conducted the drive.The owner identified as Mohammad Khokan (48), hailing from Noakhali was jailed for two years and each of his two employees identified as Md Rabiul Islam (19) and Russel Hossain (22) were jailed for one year each for collecting, preserving and selling blood.Magistrate Pasha said, at least five tests are mandatory before collecting blood from an individual. But they were not following the process. “They make a single bag of blood double,” he said.Witnesses claimed that the blood centre authorities had been collecting blood from the drug-addicted people for several years.Swapan Kumer Tarafder, a Deputy Director of the Health Directorate said, although the blood bank had registration, they have no experienced specialist for collecting and testing the blood. They were selling blood without testing the blood of the donor.
