Jabalpur hospital fire: One more absconding doctor held, two others continue to evade arrest

One more absconding doctor-cum-owner of the private hospital in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur city where a devastating fire had claimed eight lives was arrested from the Dumna airport on Tuesday, police said. The arrested doctor is identified as Sanjay Patel, one of the six accused booked by the police after a fire raged through the New Life Multi-Speciality Hospital on August 1.

"He was arrested from the Dumna Airport," said Jabalpur superintendent of police Siddarth Bahuguna.

Police have so far arrested four persons, including two doctors Dr. Santosh Soni and Dr. Sanjay Patel, besides senior manager of hospital Vipin Pandey and assistant manager Ram Soni. They all were remanded to jail, the SP said.

The police had announced a reward of Rs 10,000 each for providing information leading to the arrest of New Life Multi-Specialty Hospital Director / Proprietor Dr. Nishint Gupta, Dr. Suresh Patel, and Dr. Sanjay Patel and senior manager Vipin Pandey, he said.

Police teams are conducting searches at various places and trying to get leads to trace Dr. Nishit Gupta and Dr. Suresh Patel, the SP added.

Police had said that the hospital prima facie did not have adequate fire extinguishers as per the approved fire plan in the provisional fire NOC. There were no designated exit routes in case of emergency. Besides electrical safety audit was not conducted.

A case was registered against Dr. Nishit Gupta, Dr. Suresh Patel, Dr. Sanjay Patel, Dr. Santosh Soni and Assistant Manager of the hospital Ram Soni under sections 304 (Punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code.