Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) alone treated more than 250 people for drugged unconsciousness since October 16, records of the hospital revealed.

Passengers of the inter-district buses, trains and launches are easy prey to such mugging. Besides, this type of mugging happens also to people riding rickshaws and auto-rickshaws (CNG), police said.

Abdus Sattar, 27, a rickshaw-puller, had fallen prey to muggers at 11 in the night near the General Post Office. He said they stalked him all along and while he was resting at a wayside tea stall they made friends with him and offered a cup of tea.

"Soon after I had drunk the tea, I became unconscious. I can't recall what happened to me then," Sattar, who was undergoing treatment at the DMCH, told The Daily Star on Thursday.

In most cases, unrelated people bring the victims to the hospital. Doctors or nurses at the hospital have to wait until the victims' family members can be contacted.

An attending doctor at the DMCH said, "We are supposed to conduct a thorough medical check-up of such a victim. But lack of coordination hardly allows us carry out the tests."