The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, a leading chamber, has requested the government of West Bengal to release AMRI’s seven directors who were arrested after the December 9 fire disaster.

The chamber has argued its case both on grounds of fair play and preempting the rise of negative sentiment among investors.

“… Those who are not found guilty and are not responsible for day-to-day operations of any business should be released immediately. This is only fair and will also prevent the spread of any negative sentiments within the domestic investor community and encourage future philanthropic activity under which more hospitals have been established,” the New Delhi-based chamber said in a press statement.

Ninety-one people including patients and employees of the premier hospital were killed.

All the seven directors arrested by the police have pleaded they were not involved in the day-to-day running of the hospital. For this reason, suggestions were circulating in the city’s investor community that the administration could have treated the directors with more sympathy. The Ficci statement on Monday is the first instance of an organisation coming forward with a formal statement.

Six directors of AMRI are in Alipore jail now. They are RS Goenka, Prashant Goenka, Manish Goenka, SK Todi, Ravi Todi and Dayanand Agarwal. The seventh director, RS Agarwal, is in the SSKM hospital.

The police have also arrested senior vice-president (projects) Satyabrata Upadhyay and assistant general manager (maintenance) Sanjib Pal.