A mobile court in Dhaka on Saturday sentenced five wholesale traders to different terms and fined 14 others with over Tk 50 lakh on charges of hiking prices of onion and potatoes amid the spared of coronavirus in the country.
Executive Magistrate of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Sarwar Alam led the drive at a wholesale market in the capital’s Jatrabari.
The mobile court launched the raid after prices of onion rose to nearly 70 Tk a kg and price of potatoes in the market.
As the traders failed to provide documents to the RAB on the actual onion prices which they were selling, the mobile court then sentenced five traders to six months to one year in jail and fined 14 others with Tk 50,40,000.
Price of onions dropped to nearly Tk 40 at the market after the raid.
Price of essentials skyrocketed across the country as people rushed to stock the commodities since panic grips the nations over the fear of spreading a novel coronavirus in the country.
Bangladesh on Saturday reported the second death from coronavirus and four new cases, raising the total patients infected with coronavirus to 24.
The coronavirus pandemic so far has infected more than 275,000 people and claimed over 11,000 lives worldwide.
