People running for life with fear, despair and in chaos! A minor spark and the smoke which billowed out of it at Rabindra Sarobar metro station was more than enough for a city - which was just out of one of its worst mishaps claiming 93 lives - to press the panic button.
On a day when the Friday’s inferno at Dhakuria’s Advance Medicare and Research Institute (AMRI) claimed two more lives taking the toll to 93, Rabindra Sarobar metro station witnessed an instance on how the hospital fire has made the city cautious. Around 5.40 pm, smoke was all around the Rabindra Sarobar station due to a minor fire on a metro, which was on its way to Kavi Subhash, reminding the onlookers the incidents at Dhakuria hospital.
“People were running here and there for life, while a lot of them were screaming. Finally, metro rail officials evacuated people from the train and made it sure that it was safe. But we were also choking by that time,” said Ritesh Kujur, a bank employee who was in Rabindra Sarobar station when the incident happened.
When enquired, a top metro rail official confirmed it and said, “We have sent the metro back to Tollygunge depot. It was due to some technical problem with the break.”
However, reports said the casualties new of Friday’s fire were Babulal Bhattacharya, a West Bengal police constable who was shifted to AMRI Salt Lake Hospital, and 82-year-old Neela Dasgupta who was shifted to a city hospital later.
Meanwhile, locals payed tribute with flowers, to those who lost their lives, outside the AMRI hospital today. While forensic experts who came for inspection were unable to collect any evidence as the basement was filled with water.
Yesterday, six of the seven arrested AMRI board members were remanded to 10 days police custody. It include R S Goenka, Manish Goenka and Prashant Goenka of Emami Group, S K Todi and Ravi Todi of Shrachi groups and DN Agarwal, Executive Director, AMRI Hospitals. The next hearing is scheduled on December 20 of this month. Though arrested, Emami Ltd Chairman R S Agarwal, who was hospitalised, was not produced before the court on medical grounds.
AMRI had also put on hold investment plans worth about Rs 2,000 crore after the incident. While Emami has a 66 per cent stake in AMRI, Shrachi has 32 per cent and the state government holds 2 per cent stake.
