Children admitted to state-run Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur where at least 30 children died in 48 hours.
LUCKNOW: The UP police on Saturday arrested Dr Kafeel Ahmad who was in charge of the Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) ward at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur where more than 30 children died within days, apparently due to a shortage of oxygen.
Dr Ahmad was named as one of the nine accused in the FIR lodged by the director-general of medical education of UP, Dr K Gupta, on the basis of the report of a high powered panel which conducted a probe into the deaths of the children on August 10 and 11. The probe panel was headed by state chief secretary Rajiv Kumar who submitted the report into the tragic deaths on August 20.
While the principal of the college Dr Rajiv Mishra and his wife Dr Purnima Shukla were arrested earlier, Dr Kafeel eluded the police net following which a non-bailable warrant was issued against him.
A total of nine persons were named by Dr KK Gupta in his complaint on the basis of which an FIR was lodged initially in state capital on August 23 and subsequently in Gorakhpur on August 24.
The other six persons named as accused in the FIR include Manshi Bhandari, director, Pushpa Sales Pvt Ltd, the firm which supplied liquid oxygen to the hospital. They remain at large. DIG Manoj Tiwari said that police teams got about Dr Kafeel Ahmad’s whereabouts from his family in Lucknow and tracked him down to a house on the outskirts of Gorakhpur.
All the nine accused have been booked under different sections of IPC dealing with offences like culpable homicide, criminal negligence, corruption and bribery. Earlier, on Tuesday, suspended principal Dr RK Mishra and his wife Dr Purnima Shukla were arrested from Kanpur. They were taken to Gorakhpur and sent to judicial custody for 14 days on Thursday.
