AL leader sued for supplying substandard masks to BSMMU

An Awami League leader and assistant registrar of Dhaka University has been sued for supplying fake ‘N-95’ masks to the coronavirus unit of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU).

BSMMU proctor Md Mozaffar Ahmed filed the case against Sharmin Jahan, a member of Awami League’s former central sub-committee for women and child affairs, on Thursday night.

BSMMU authorities accused her of putting the life of frontline fighters against coronavirus at risk by supplying substandard masks.

Sharmin was also former assistant secretary of AL’s student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League and president of Dhaka University’s Bangladesh Kuwait Maitree Hall unit.

Owner of ‘Aparajita International’ which supplied the masks to the BSMMU, Sharmin is also an assistant registrar of DU administration-1.

BSMMU proctor in the case statement said, Sharmin got a work order of supplying 11,000 masks on 27 June.

On 30 June and 2 July, she supplied 1760 masks which were of good quality.

But she supplied another 1700 masks on 2 and 13 July which were substandard, according to the case statement.

The BSMMU authorities found various discrepancies in the supplied masks and found those to be substandard.

The medical authorities on 18 July served Sharmin with a show-cause notice.

In reply, Sharmin 20 July ‘regretted’ which further proved her fault, the BSSMU authorities said.

Sharmin, however, denied supplying substandard masks and said she is being victimised.

She said an assistant director of BSMMU received the masks after verification.

Sharmin also raised questions as to why the authorities filed the case against her after all this time.

Asked why she apologised if the masks were of good quality, Sharmin said she did not apologize for supplying substandard masks rather for the emergence of such a situation.