Nagpur: 40 days after a fire in Bhandara district general hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit killed 10 babies, Bhandara police finally registered an offence in the case. The delay was raising suspicions of undue pressure on them to shield the culprits.
FIR has been registered in police station Bhandaraunder section 304 part 2 of IPC. Arun Waykar, SDPO Sakoli, is the complainant in the case while Shubhangi Sathavane and Smita Ambildhuke, both nurses in the hospital have been named as accused.
Bhandara police cited not having received response to some queries from the concerned departments for ascertaining the probable culprits behind their delay. They were also not given the fact-finding report of the expert committee constituted under the divisional commissioner Sanjeev Kumar.
Following the submission of the report, the Bhandara civil surgeon was suspended and others too were penalized in varied degrees. For reasons not clear, police have been kept in the dark regarding the expert committee report. Kumar said the inquiry was completed and report was sent to the health department. “The report was submitted before the government,” he said.
While Bhandara police dilly-dallied for seven weeks, Wardha police promptly registered an offence the same day after an accident in the furnace section of Uttam Galva Metallics plant at Bhugaon in the first week of February. When the FIR was registered by Wardha police none of the injured workers had died. Two of them later succumbed to their injuries.
After the deaths, police invoked more charges against the company employees for their negligence. Wardha police too are learnt to be waiting for some technical reports but that did not hinder them from registering an offence. “Prima facie, there was an accident which was clear after visiting the spot and hence no question of not filing a FIR,” said an official from Wardha.
Bhandara and Wardha district police are under Nagpur range IG Chiranjeev Prasad. In Bhandara’s case, police are explaining the delay in filing the FIR by stating that initial reports of technical experts and forensic science have reached but more queries were being raised on the findings.
“We are awaiting some advanced query reports. The case is being duly probed from all the angles,” said IG Prasad.
During an informal press meet at city, state home minister Anil Deshmukh too could not say much beyond the routine ‘need to take an update on the issue’. The delay had led to a strong buzz in the district regarding someone powerful trying to shield the culprits.