SUM Hospital fire: Trustee of SOA charitable trust Manoj Nayak surrenders
BHUBANESWAR: Nearly 48 hours after the blaze in SUM Hospital that led to death of 21 persons, Dr Manoj Ranjan Nayak, trustee of Siksha O Anusandhan Charitable Trust that runs the private hospital, surrendered before the City police in the wee hours on Thursday.
Police sources said Nayak surrendered at Khandagiri police station at about 3.30 am. While a team of police officials are interrogating him, efforts are on to locate and arrest his wife Saswati Das, who is another trustee of the trust.
On wednesday evening the City police had issued look out circular (LOC) against both Nayak and Das asking them not to leave the country.
DG of Police K B Singh said two more trustees will be arrested soon.
A look out notice was issued against the trustees as a result Nayak surrendered before the police. We are now looking for his wife," he informed.
The State police chief said cops were busy in controling law and order after the mishap. "Now we will concentrate on investigation part. All aspects will be thoroughly probed. We also have received a letter from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Black Money to investigate it's funding patern," he added.
So far five persons have been arrested in connection with SUM Hospital fire incident. Earlier Medical Superintendent, two electrical engineers and a fire safety officer were arrested.
Police had raided office and residence of Nayak and seized important documents.
SIT on Black Money had also directed Enforcement Directorate (ED) to probe financial transactions of the trust and its sister organizations.
Police DG said the investigating team will also look into financial aspect and find out the trust's source of fundings.
Meanwhile, Khurda district administration has served a show cause notice on the management of Institute of Medical Sciences (IMD) and SUM Hospital as to why the private hospital would not be closed for flouting fire safety protocols. The management has a week time to submit its reply.
After the arrest news spread, hundreds of supporters of Manoj Nayak and employees of SUM Hospital gathered at Khandagiri police station and staged agitation demanding his release.
They have gheraoed the police station. Police forces are being mobilised to control the agitating crowd.