Odisha Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak resigned from his position after 25 patients were reported killed and over 100 sustained injuries in an inferno that broke out at SUM Hospital in Bhubaneswar on Monday evening.
Confirming the development, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, "Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak has resigned on moral grounds and I have accepted his resignation and sent it to the Governor."
Earlier in the day, the Chief Judicial Magistrate sent hospital founder Manoj Nayak in two-day police remand.
Nayak was arrested on Thursday by police after he surrendered before it and was produced before the Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate Court in Bhubaneswar last evening.
Rejecting the bail plea of Nayak, the court granted the city police to take Nayak on a two-day remand.
He was booked under section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for poor fire safety measures at his hospital.