More than 60 children, mostly infants, had died at the hospital within a week last month.There were allegations that the deaths occurred due to a disruption in oxygen supply over unpaid bills to the vendor. PTI file photo
Over a month after 30 children died at the BRD Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur allegedly owing to shortage of oxygen, the proprietor of the company that supplied the life-saving gas to the Hospital, was on Sunday arrested by the police.
Manish Bhandari, the proprietor of Pushpa Sales, that had the contract to supply oxygen, was arrested from the outskirts of Gorakhpur town early on Sunday morning, according to the police sources here.
Bhandari was produced before a district court later in the day and sent him to judicial custody.
Police were on the lookout for Manish after he was booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code after a probe revealed that the company had stopped the supply of the gas to the Hospital citing delay in clearing its old bills.
Though the Hospital officials had told the company that disruption in oxygen supply could result in death of children yet it cut off the supply.
With Manish's arrest, a total of nine persons, who had been booked in connection with the kids' death, have so far been arrested. The principal of the Medical College, who had been suspended after the tragedy, was also behind the bars.
30 children, mostly newborn, had died allegedly owing to shortage of oxygen at the hospital in a period of 36-hours between August 10 and 11. The deaths sparked a nationwide outrage and the opposition parties demanded resignation of the chief minister Yogi Adityanath. The government denied that the children had died owing to shortage of oxygen.
A high-level probe into the matter by UP chief secretary claimed that lack of oxygen was not behind the kids' death.