UP infant deaths: Suspended Gorakhpur principal, wife arrested

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Tuesday arrested Dr Rajiv Misra, the suspended principal of Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur, and his wife Dr Purnima Shukla. The two were arrested from G.T. Road in Kanpur while they were moving towards Allahabad. The couple had come to take legal advice from a well-known lawyer in Saket Nagar in Kanpur. Two STF teams are interrogating the couple at separate destinations.

The police, earlier in the day, also carried out raids at multiple places in Gorakhpur for another accused Dr Kafeel Khan, former nodal officer of the encephalitis ward in BRD Medical College, but he could not be found. Meanwhile, the UP health department filed two separate caveats before the Allahabad and Lucknow benches of the high court against BRD Medical College.

The state health department said it was fully aware and vigilant about the August 10 incident at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College, which resulted in the deaths of over 33 children due to lack of oxygen supply to the wards.

The case has been transferred from Lucknow to the Gulhariya police station in Gorakhpur and DSP Abhishek Kumar Singh is leading the investigating team. In the past 48 hours, the police have collected documents and records from the principal’s office, seized records of employees named in the case that was filed at the Hazratganj police station here on the night of August 23.

It has been alleged that former principal Dr Rajiv Misra and employees of the medical college did not clear dues of the oxygen supplier, Pushpa Sales Private Limited, and allowed '2.50 crore fund to lapse. Kickbacks were allegedly the main reason for delay in clearance of arrears. Dr Misra went on leave without informing senior officers even though he was aware of the oxygen crisis in the medical college.

Head of the department of anesthesia, Dr Satish Kumar, who was in-charge of the oxygen supply, too went on leave. Dr Kafeel Khan, the then nodal officer of the encephalitis ward, was found involved in private practice and used the media to misguide the medical after the death of the children, according to the FIR.

The other accused in the FIR are chief pharmacist Gajanan Jaiswal, accountant Sudhir Pandey, assistant clerk, Uday Pratap Sharma of Pushpa Sales and Manish Bhandari. The case has been filed under Sections 409, 308, 120 (b) and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), besides Section 7/13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 15 of the Indian Medical Council Act.