hospital-fire-owner-doc-in-3-day-police-custody

A court in Delhi allowed police's plea seeking custodial interrogation of the owner and a doctor on duty  at New Born Baby Care Hospital, a childcare centre in East Delhi, where seven newborn babies died in a fire  on Saturday night .

Seven newborns lost their lives in the fire and Dr Naveen Khichi, owner of the hospital, was arrested by the police on Sunday, a day after the incident.

 

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vidhi Gupta sent Khichi and Dr Akash -  who was present on duty when the fire broke out, to three-day police custody.

 

Police have said that investigations so far have revealed that Dr Akash, a BAMS (bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery) graduate did not have the requisite qualifications to treat newborn babies in intensive care.

 

Initially after the fire police filed cases under sections 336 (acting rashly or negligently to endanger human life or the personal safety others), 304-A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), DCP Shahdara Surendra Choudhary told news agencies on Sunday.

 

However, after investigations and checking registrations of the childcare centre, charges under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 308 (Attempt to commit culpable homicide) were also framed against Khichi, Chaudhary said.

 

 Police also found that the childcare centre's fire safety no-objection-certificate had expired on March 31. There were no fire exits or fire extinguishers in the buildings.

Though it had permits for only five beds, the childcare centre had around 11-12 beds.

 

Police investigations also revealed that three BAMS doctors were on the rolls of the centre, of which one was apprehended.