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4 officials arrested, hospital blaze toll 20 in Bhubaneswar
BHUBANESWAR: Four officials, including the superintendent of a private hospital, were arrested and four employees suspended on Tuesday, a day after a massive blaze
BHUBANESWAR: Four officials, including the superintendent of a private hospital, were arrested and four employees suspended on Tuesday, a day after a massive blaze there claimed 20 lives and left many injured.
Meanwhile, over 100 patients, mostly from the ravaged ICU and dialysis units were shifted elsewhere for treatment.
While 20 deaths were officially confirmed, authorities of different hospitals where the injured were shifted on Monday night put the toll at 22 after the fire broke out at SUM Hospital here.
The arrests were made shortly after Odisha government filed two FIRs alleging negligence in conduct and safety against SUM Hospital. Two separate FIRs were lodged by joint director of the directorate of medical education and training (DMET) Umakanta Satpathy and fire officer (central circle) BB Das with Khandagiri police station.
Those arrested were superintendent Pushpraj Samantsinghar, electrical maintenance engineer Amulya Sahu, fire safety officer Santosh Das, and junior electrical engineer Malay Sahu, commissioner of police YB Khurania said.
Khurania said the four were arrested on the basis of preliminary inquiry report of the fire officer and the FIR filed by fire services department at Khandagiri police station where a case in this regard was registered on Tuesday.
The four were booked under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire and combustible materials) and 34 (common intent) of the IPC, the police commissioner said.
Meanwhile, director general of fire service, Binay Behera, submitted a report to the state government on the fire. He mentioned that the fire safety norms as per the 2013 guidelines were not followed by hospital authorities, an official said.
A senior police official said more arrests in the case cannot be ruled out.
Health and family welfare minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak said the joint director of DMET also lodged an FIR against the hospital for alleged violation of provisions under Odisha Clinic and Establishment Act, 1992.
