India News | Gujarat: Three Arrested for Rajkot Hospital Fire

Ahmedabad, Dec 1 (PTI) Police have arrested three senior officials of a company that operated a private COVID-19 hospital in Gujarat's Rajkot district where a fire killed five patients last week, a police official said on Tuesday.

The fire broke out around 12.30 am on Friday in the ICU ward of Uday Shivanand Hospital in which five COVID-19 patients were killed, while 28 others were rescued.

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On Sunday, the police registered an FIR against five officials of Gokul Healthcare Pvt Limited, which operated the hospital, under Indian Penal Code Section 304-A (causing death by negligence).

The police arrested the company's chairman, Dr Prakash Modha, his son and executive director Dr Vishal Modha, and director Dr Tejas Karamta on Monday night after their COVID-19 test reports were received, an official from Rajkot's Malviya Nagar police station said.

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"They have been booked along with two others under the IPC section for causing death by negligence," he said.

On Sunday, Deputy Commissioner of Police Manoharsinh Jadeja told reporters that an investigation into the incident revealed negligence on part of the hospital authorities, and hence the FIR was lodged against them under IPC Section 304-A.

He said the COVID-19 hospital began functioning after getting permission on September 15.

The hospital was started on three floors rented at a hospital being run by Shivanand Mission Trust. During the investigation into the incident, several norms were found to have been allegedly flouted and negligence of hospital administrators came to fore, he said.

The hospital did not follow fire prevention protocols and safety measures were lacking, which caused difficulties in the rescue operation and resulted in the death of five patients, he had said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)