Gouripur factory made mango juice without mango; owner jailed for three months

A mobile court in Gouripur upazila of Mymensingh sentenced juice factory owner Md Dulal Uddin, 50, to three months in jail for making "mango juice" from chemicals without any mango. The drive took place on Tuesday, 4 March 2025, in Ruknakanda village of Dauhakhala union and was led by the upazila's assistant commissioner (land), Sunanda Sarkar. The owner was also fined Tk 1 lakh and the factory was sealed.

Dulal Uddin is the son of the late Afaz Uddin of Kaliakair in Gazipur district. According to Jago News, he had been running the factory for a long time. The Daily Inqilab reported that he was arrested during the drive.

Sunanda Sarkar told Jago News that the factory was making mango juice and other soft drinks using only harmful chemicals. The fake juice was filled into bottles of well-known brands and sold. A search of the whole factory found no trace of mango, and the factory had no approval to operate.

The Daily Inqilab reported that the plant, which had no approval from the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), was producing low-quality artificial-flavour juice, ice bars and edible jelly in unhygienic conditions, using copied packaging and bottles of known brands. The court seized the juice-making machines and materials; the bottles, chemicals and colours were destroyed, and the juice and bottles were burnt.

According to the Inqilab, the drive ran from morning to early afternoon on information from the National Security Intelligence (NSI) agency, under the leadership of the upazila nirbahi officer (UNO). Members of the army, the NSI, BSTI officials and police took part.

Sunanda Sarkar told the Inqilab that the factory was raided under the BSTI law and the consumer rights protection law because it was making counterfeit juice harmful to health. "The factory has been sealed. Our drives of this kind will continue," she said. The UNO said the upazila administration's drives against counterfeit goods would go on.

Mobile courts in Bangladesh are run by executive magistrates under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 and the Mobile Court Act, 2009. Under the Code, assistant commissioners, additional deputy commissioners and upazila nirbahi officers can exercise an executive magistrate's powers within their areas; an assistant commissioner (land) is one of them.

Juice is a drink made by extracting or pressing the natural liquid contained in fruit or vegetables. The Gouripur factory lacked that basic ingredient: there was no mango, only chemicals, colour and artificial flavour made to look like mango juice.

BSTI is an autonomous government body under the Ministry of Industries that controls the standards of goods and services and of weights and measures. It was formed by an ordinance in 1985 that merged the Bangladesh Standards Institution with the Central Testing Laboratories.

Gouripur is an upazila of Mymensingh district. Besides Gouripur municipality it has ten unions, Douhakhola (Dauhakhala) among them, and the 2022 census counted 357,353 people there.

Photo: Shahnoor Habib Munmun / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, The Daily Inqilab, Wikipedia (Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution, Executive magistrate (Bangladesh), Gouripur Upazila, Juice)