Six board members of the Advance Medicare and Research Institute (AMRI) Hospitals Ltd, who were arrested yesterday, were remanded to 10 days police custody on Saturday. They were arrested after a fire mishap killed 91 people at a group hospital in Dhakuria
While seven board members of AMRI — a joint venture by Emami Group and Kolkata-based developer Shrachi Group — were arrested, only six were produced before the Alipore court on Saturday. Though arrested, Emami Chairman R S Agarwal, who was hospitalised, was not produced before the court on medical grounds. However, the Alipore chief judicial magistrate has ordered to put six other AMRI directors, R S Goenka, Manish Goenka and Prashant Goenka of Emami Group, S K Todi and Ravi Todi of Shrachi groups and D N Agarwal, executive director, AMRI Hospitals in police custody for 10 days. The next hearing is scheduled for December 20.
“They were arrested on charges of culpable homicide and negligence,” said Damayanti Sen, Joint Commissioner of Police. The anger against the promoters was on a high as the death toll increased to 91 on Saturday. Meanwhile, there were huge demonstrations outside the Alipore court shouting slogans against the promoters when the directors were produced before court. The Alipore Lawyers’ Clerks’ Association too joined the protests and said that no lawyer would be allowed to appear for AMRI.
The government counsel Kalyan Bandopadhyay has alleged the group of violating all safety norms in the hospital. “We have asked the Kolkata Muncipal Corporation officials to inspect all the private hospitals in the city to check whether safety norms are violated like this. Moreover, we are looking into whether there was something illegal with the hospital structure,” said Sovan Chatterjee, Kolkata Mayor and Trinamool Congress leader.
On the other hand, the hospital annex building wore a deserted look on Saturday and locals payed tribute with flowers to those who lost their lives by making a makeshift memorial outside the hospital.
