Jabalpur hospital's fire NOC had expired; licence revoked, manager arrested

The chief medical and health officer (CMHO) of Jabalpur on Wednesday evening revoked the registration/licence of the private hospital, where eight persons, four of them patients, died in a devastating fire on Monday afternoon, while five others were injured.

Bhopal/Jabalpur: The preliminary probe into the Jabalpur hospital fire tragedy has revealed several shortcomings regarding safety and it was found that the fire No Objection Certificate (NOC) of the facility had expired, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra said on Tuesday.

In the evening, the chief medical and health officer (CMHO) of Jabalpur revoked the registration/licence of the private hospital, where eight persons, four of them patients, died in a devastating fire on Monday afternoon, while five others were injured.

Mishra said police have registered a case of culpable homicide against four doctors-cum-owners of the hospital and also its manager, who has been arrested. The four doctors are on the run and police teams have fanned out to nab them, a senior police officer said. Prima facie, several shortcomings were found on the part of the hospital regarding fire safety.

The preliminary probe has found that the fire NOC of the New Life Multi-speciality Hospital had expired, Mishra said. "An FIR (first information report) was registered by the Jabalpur police against four owners-cum-doctors of the hospital under sections 304 (Punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of the IPC (Indian Penal Code)," he told reporters in Bhopal and termed the tragedy as "very unfortunate".

The five persons booked by the police are Dr Nishit Gupta, Dr Suresh Patel, Dr Sanjay Patel, Dr Santosh Soni, and hospital manager Ram Soni (who has been arrested), the minister said. "A probe committee headed by the Jabalpur divisional commissioner, which includes joint directors of health and town and country planning, and engineers, will file a report on various issues, including fire safety," said Mishra.

Jabalpur city superintendent of police (CSP) Akhilesh Gaur said section 34 (act done by several persons in furtherance to common intention) of the IPC was also included in the FIR registered at the Vijay Nagar police station in the city. "The four doctors are at large. Police have set up four teams to nab them," he said.

According to officials, four of the eight deceased were women. Meanwhile, the health condition of the five persons injured in the massive blaze is stable. "The condition of the five injured persons is stable. Two of them are undergoing treatment in the government medical college here, Jabalpur collector Ilayaraja T told PTI.

A day earlier, the collector had said of the five injured, two were in critical condition and admitted to the ICU of the government medical college in Jabalpur. The eight deceased included three staffers of the hospital who were identified as Mahima Jatav (23), Swati Verma (24), and Veer Singh (30).

The four patients who were charred to death were identified as Durgesh Singh (42), Tanmay Vishwakarma (19), Sonu Yadav (26) and Ansuiya Yadav (55). A woman who was killed in the blaze was not yet identified. Officials had said the blaze was primarily caused due to an electrical short circuit.

Meanwhile, the CMHO of Jabalpur on Tuesday revoked the registration/licence of the hospital, which started functioning just last year during the coronavirus pandemic. CMHO Ratnesh Kuraria issued an order to this effect. (PTI)