Nagpur: The Bhandara district and sessions judge on Monday adjourned the anticipatory bail hearing of two District General Hospital nurses, who had been booked for the deaths of 10 babies in a fire on January 9, till February 26.
Sources at the Bhandara court said the prosecution wanted time to produce relevant documents before the court in support of their arguments to oppose the bail pleas of nurses Smita Ambildukhe and Shubhangi Sathawane. The two nurses were booked under section 304 part II of Indian Penal Code (IPC) after a delay of 40 days since the incident.
The prosecution was represented by district government Vinod Bhole. “Police department wanted some time to produce documents. The arguments would follow as soon as the documents are presented,” he said.
Apart from Ambildukhe and Sathawane, another nurse, Jyoti Choudhuri (Balsagre), too had approached the court for anticipatory bail last month, but she has not been booked in the case yet.
It’s learnt Sathawane and Ambildukhe were not present at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), when the fire started at around 1.20am, claiming the lives of 10 babies. Sources also said one of the nurses was engaged in chatting on her phone while another had been engaged on social media during their absence from the NICU and the nursing station. There was a 20-minutes gap between the first spark and when the fire was spotted by staffers when smoke started bellowing out. It was during this time gap that the maximum damage and casualties had taken place.