Agra: The Uttar Pradesh Health Department has ordered a probe after a video surfaced purportedly showing the owner of a private hospital admitting that he snapped the oxygen supply of critical patients, both in COVID and non-COVID wards as an experiment to know who all are going to survive. “I decided to conduct an experiment/mock drill as we were facing an acute shortage of oxygen as people were not ready to discharge their patients despite multiple requests. At 7 AM on April 26, we snapped the oxygen supply for five minutes. Soon, 22 patients’ bodies turned blue and they started gasping for breath so we came to know that they won’t survive in case there is no oxygen. Then, we ask family members of the remaining 74 patients to arrange their own oxygen cylinders”, Arinjay Jain, owner of Paras Hospital on NH 2 can be heard saying in the purported video, which could not be independently verified by India.com.

Watch the viral video here: 

NOTE: India.com cannot verify the authenticity of the video.

Meanwhile, the chief medical officer of Agra district, DR RC Pandey asserted that a committee has been constituted to investigate the content of the video.

Speaking to a leading daily, Jain defended himself and said that his statement been taken out of context. “We had conducted a mock drill to identify critical patients and better serve them. Four Covid-19 patients died on April 26 and three on April 27”, he told Times of India. On being asked if 22 patients had died in the hospital due to shortage of oxygen, he said he “did not have the exact numbers”.

On the other hand, in a statement to the media, District magistrate Prabhu N Singh said that there were 22 critical patients admitted in the hospital but we don’t have details of their death.” “We’ll look into the video surfaced about their death”, he told ANI.

Top Congress leaders Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi have lambasted the ruling BJP government over the incident. Taking to Twitter, the former Congress president said, “There is a severe shortage of both oxygen and humanity under the BJP rule.” He also demanded strict action against those responsible for the ‘dangerous crime’.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also raised questions on the Yogi Adityanath-led government. “PM: ‘I made sure there was no shortage of oxygen’; CM: ‘There’s no shortage of oxygen’;  Minister: ‘Give just enough oxygen patients need. Don’t give too much oxygen.’ Agra hospital: ‘There was no oxygen. The mock drill was conducted by snapping supply for 22 patients.’ Who’s responsible?” Priyanka Gandhi tweeted in Hindi.