Gorakhpur deaths: UP files cases against nine, including oxygen supplier
The Uttar Pradesh government has filed police cases against nine persons, including government doctors and a private oxygen supplier, in connection with the deaths of several children at Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur.
At least 30 children convalescing in neonatal and critical care wards had died on August 10 and 11, allegedly because of the snapping of oxygen supply due to outstanding bills of ~68 lakh.
Though the state government has always denied the deaths occurred because of the disruption in oxygen supply, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had constituted a high-level committee under State Chief Secretary Rajive Kumar to probe the incident and submit a report for further action.
The CM had assured exemplary action in the case, which has subjected his government to much criticism for the fact that Gorakhpur is his parliamentary constituency and he is representing it for the fifth consecutive time.
The committee had submitted its report to Adityanath on Tuesday, after which the CM had directed for the filing of First Information Report (FIR) against the persons who were allegedly aggravating the situation and indulging in corrupt practices.
Consequently, an FIR was lodged on Wednesday at the Hazratganj Police Station in Lucknow against nine persons, including Manish Bhandari who is the director of Lucknow-based oxygen supplier Pushpa Sales.
The case was registered on the complaint by Uttar Pradesh’s Director General of Medical Education K K Gupta under six different sections, pertaining to the IPC (Sections 420, 308, 120B), Anti- Corruption Act and Indian Medical Council Act (Section 15).
The other accused are Uday Pratap (audit department), Sanjay (BRD clerk), Sudheer (BRD clerk), R K Mishra (suspended principal of BRD Medical College), Purnima Shukla (Mishra’s wife), Kafeel Khan (head of department for children ward), Gajanan Jaiswal (chief pharmacist) and Satish (HoD anaesthesia and oxygen supply department).
According to sources, the case would now be transferred to Gorakhpur’s Gulariha Police Station for further investigation since BRD Medical College comes under its jurisdiction.
The chief secretary’s report had also claimed that the deaths were not related to oxygen supply. It had also found that the officials had deliberately held back payments to the oxygen supplier in order to extract their share though the hospital had adequate funds to settle dues within the stipulated time.
Earlier, the National Human Rights Commission had also issued notice to the Yogi government over these deaths and sought detailed report in the matter, apart from the steps taken for relief and rehabilitation of the victims’ families. The Commission issued the notice after taking suo motu cognisance of media reports, which purportedly hinted at the negligence in the supply of liquid oxygen which resulted in the tragedy.