NEW DELHI: The chargesheet in the Baby Care New Born Child Hospital fire case said that the doctor on duty was seen on a call but did not alert the police or the fire brigade, thus delaying the rescue operation by at least 30 minutes.
Official sources told this newspaper that two eyewitnesses were examined, who saw the spread of fire and made a PCR call. They told the police that one of the accused in the chargesheet, the on-duty BAMS-qualified Dr Akash, was seen on a call but did not make any PCR call.
“This caused a delay of about 30 minutes in reporting to police,” the source said.
Tragedy struck at an infant-care institute in Vivek Vihar in Shahdara area in east Delhi on the intervening night of May 25 and 26, when six newborns were killed after a massive fire broke out at the facility. A week later, another child who was rescued succumbed to injuries, taking the death toll to seven. As per the autopsy report, the surgeon opined the cause of death to “flame burn.”
Soon after the incident, a series of rampant violations came to the fore during the 60-day police investigation in which the cops squarely blamed two people: Dr. Naveen Khichi (owner of the nursing home) and Dr. Akash, the BAMS doctor on duty, who was the overall in charge of the neonatal intensive care unit for that night.
There were “unqualified” doctors working at the hospital, safety norms to be followed in cases of emergency were flouted left-and-right, and the neonatal facility was operating without a No Objection Certificate from the fire department.
The accused were running the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for 12 beds in violation of the licence for five beds only.
As per the chargesheet, when the cops interrogated the staff present on the duty, they stated that none of them possessed the required degree for working at NICU. They must possess a minimum qualification of General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) along with DNC registration.
“The nursing staff on duty stated that the owner allowed the other male staff to cook on the rooftop, for which they brought the issue in the knowledge of the owner but to no avail,” the official source said.
Moreover, there was no facility in the hospital to run a NICU for 12 beds and even the structural design of the nursing home was not safe for emergencies.
The cops observed that the oxygen gas cylinders were stored beyond permissible limits and in a hazardous manner, which resulted in explosion of the cylinders.
“They kept the inflammable material i.e. bundles of old papers, wooden debris, which becomes inflammable in prevalent scorching hot weather. Those materials aggravated the fire,” the officer said.
The police also found that at the time of issuance of license, the accused gave a declaration that he will have five cylinders of Category-B type and 15 of Category-D. However, at the time of the incident, there were 31 cylinders.
Meanwhile, the viscera and femur for DNA of deceased infants was deposited at FSL, Rohini, for analysis and expert opinion, result is still awaited, said a source.