WE are fortunate to live in a land of dreams, where people toil against their fates day after day and still manage to survive the many odds, dreaming of a better day. ‘Doctor’ Abdul Kayum is not part of that section of people. His is a special case, where being a student of Humanities and Commerce he decided to defy all odds and pursue his perversion of earning money dishonestly by pretending to be a practicing Doctor. In the course of fulfilling his criminal ambition, he endangered many lives and brought into question how far people would really go in pursuit of earning money dishonestly.
According to reports, a mobile court backed up by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel apprehended the subject after receiving information on Abdul Kayum’s dubious activities at Hirosaki Pharmacy in Rampura. Kayum had been practising there for the past 2 years as a ‘Medicine Specialist’ who specialized in treating infants and newborn. Pharmacy signs also claimed that he had medical degrees like PGT (Child) and FCPS-1 (Child) which, after investigation, turned out to be false. According to reports, Kayum bought a fake medical degree of a university for 5 lakh taka in 2012. He claimed that he had enrolled in Premier University of Technology in 2007 and completed his internship from Premier University Hospital, but when questioned further about the university’s location, he could not locate it. Executive Magistrate AHM Anwar Pasha fined him 1 lakh taka and sentenced him to 2 years in prison, along with fining the owner of the pharmacy. The horror of it all did not end there.
AHM Pasha further elaborated that Kayum memorized names of medicines and doctor’s prescriptions in order to appear authentic in his prescriptions. Further questioning by officials of the Directorate of Health Services revealed that Kayum ‘could not even answer basic questions of medical science’ and that he had been issuing wrong prescriptions and treatments, which severely compromised with the lives of the unassuming patients who entrusted him with their care.
We do not know which is more terrifying, the fact that Abdul Kayum had been treating patients without any form of relevant education or the notion of him doing so with infants no less, who are incapable of investigating and finding out whether he is a legitimate medical practitioner or not. Stronger actions need to be taken against perpetrators like him and strict regulations made in order to cause a deterrent effect.
But the question is who will do it where corruption is good business in public life. If one has enough money no crime is a crime. Whole society must wake up and make sure crime against people does not go unpunished.
