Pune: A day after 24 Covid-19 patients died of oxygen deprivation in Nashik in north Maharashtra, the city police chief on Thursday appointed assistant commissioner of police-level officer to probe the incident while registering a first information report (FIR).
The FIR was registered at Bhadrakali police station under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code over allegations of gross negligence following oxygen supply disruption that led to the deaths at the civic-run Zakir Hussain hospital, said police commissioner Deepak Pandey.
“We have lodged an FIR for negligence against unidentified persons and probe is on,” said Pandey.
The leak in Nashik incident was on account of a fault in the tank’s valves that caused the prescribed oxygen pressure to reduce, leading to oxygen deprivation. The hospital was treating 157 Covid patients, of which 131 were on oxygen support and 15 on ventilators.
“We have been able to restore the oxygen supply at the hospital,” said Nashik district collector Suraj Mandhare. He met a delegation of private doctors and members affiliated to Indian Medical Association, Nashik, to discuss the acute shortage of supply of oxygen to private hospitals.
Earlier on Wednesday evening, Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope after visiting the hospital in Nashik, said, a seven-member high-powered committee will probe the incident. “Nashik divisional commissioner Radhakrishna Game will chair the committee which will have deputy director from state health department Dr PN Gandal, city-based intensivist Pramod Gunjal, professor Dyandev Nathe, Nashik municipal corporation additional engineer Sandeep Nalawade, FDA joint director Madhuri Pawar and Harshal Patil, an expert involved in installing oxygen plants,” said Tope.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier on Wednesday evening, Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope after visiting the hospital in Nashik, said, a seven-member high-powered committee will probe the incident. “Nashik divisional commissioner Radhakrishna Game will chair the committee which will have deputy director from state health department Dr PN Gandal, city-based intensivist Pramod Gunjal, professor Dyandev Nathe, Nashik municipal corporation additional engineer Sandeep Nalawade, FDA joint director Madhuri Pawar and Harshal Patil, an expert involved in installing oxygen plants,” said Tope.
{{/usCountry}}The tank from which liquid oxygen leaked became operational just 21 days before the incident, an official said. “The oxygen tank, having a storage capacity of 13 KL, was started on March 31,” said a senior police official.
He said the police also got to know that the oxygen tank belonged to (Vadodara-based) Inoxcva company and was taken on rent for 10 years from Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation (a Japanese company which supplies industrial gases like oxygen and nitrogen to industries).