Fifth accused surrenders in court

GORAKHPUR : The fifth accused in the BRD tragedy, Dr Sateesh Kumar surrendered before the ADJ court on Monday and was sent to 14-day judicial custody. Dr Sateesh Kumar, who was head of department of anaesthesia at BRD Medical College, had been absconding since an FIR was lodged against him and eight others at Hazratganj police station in Lucknow on August 23. The case was later transferred to Gulharia police station, Gorakhpur.

Dr Sateesh’s counsel had submitted an application for his surrender following which the court had asked police to submit the report related to his case. The report was handed over to the ADJ court on Monday. Dr Sateesh was accused of not maintaining proper records of oxygen supply stock and updating log books at BRD Medical College. There were allegations that the children’s deaths at BRD had happened due to disruption in oxygen supply as the vendor had not been paid for several months.

A non-bailable warrant had been issued against Dr Sateesh. While coming out of the court, Dr Sateesh avoided media glare and didn’t respond to questions of reporters.

Earlier, police arrested the then principal of the college Rajiv Mishra, his medico-wife Purnima Shukla, and Dr Kafeel Khan, the then nodal officer of the 100-bed Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) ward of the college and Sudhir Pandey, clerk of BRD Medical College.

Four other accused who are still at large include gas supplier Manish Bhandari, junior clerk Uday Pratap Singh, pharmacist Gajanan Jaiswal and assistant clerk Sanjay Tripathi.