Jabalpur hospital had no fire NOC, 4 doctors among 5 booked

The preliminary probe into the Jabalpur hospital fire tragedy has revealed several shortcomings regarding safety and it was found that the fire no objection certificate of the facility had expired, Madhya Pradesh home minister Narottam Mishra said on Tuesday.

He said the police have registered a case of culpable homicide against four doctors-cum-owners of the hospital and its manager and arrested him, a day after the devastating blaze killed eight persons, including four patients.

The four doctors are on the run and police have fanned out teams to nab them, a senior police officer said.

Prima-facie, several shortcomings were found on the part of the hospital regarding fire safety.

The preliminary probe has found that the fire no objection certificate of the New Life Multi-speciality Hospital had expired, Mishra said.

"The FIR was registered by the Jabalpur police against four owners-cum-doctors of the hospital under Sections 304 (Punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of the IPC (Indian Penal Code)," he told reporters in Bhopal even as he termed the incident "very unfortunate".

The five persons booked by the police included the hospital director and proprietor Dr Nishit Gupta, Dr Suresh Patel, Dr Sanjay Patel, Dr Santosh Soni, and the hospital manager Ram Soni, Mishra said.

"Prima facie, several shortcomings were found regarding the fire safety in the hospital. The hospital's fire NOC had expired. A probe committee headed by the divisional commissioner which includes joint directors of health and town and country planning, and engineers, will file a report on various issues including fire safety and health," said Mishra.

Jabalpur city superintendent of police Akhilesh Gaur said section 34 (act done by several persons in furtherance to common intention) of the IPC is also included in the FIR registered at Vijay Nagar police station.

"The four doctors are at large. The police have set up four teams to nab them," he said.

Meanwhile, the condition of the five persons injured in the massive blaze is stable, a Jabalpur district official said on Tuesday.

According to officials, four of the eight deceased were women.

"The condition of five injured persons is stable, including the two undergoing treatment in the government medical college in Jabalpur," Jabalpur collector Ilayaraja T told PTI earlier in the day.

A day earlier, the collector had said that of the five injured, two were in critical condition and admitted to the ICU of the government medical college in Jabalpur.

The eight deceased included three staffers of the hospital who are identified as Mahima Jatav (23), Swati Verma (24), and Veer Singh (30). The four patients were identified as Durgesh Singh (42), Tanmay Vishwakarma (19), Sonu Yadav (26), Ansuiya Yadav (55), and a woman, whose identity is not confirmed yet.

Officials had said that the blaze was primarily caused due to an electrical short circuit.

Power at the hospital had tripped around 2.30 pm and while the power system was switching to the backup, something went wrong -- possibly an electrical short circuit - and that ignited the inferno at the hospital.

Flames started from the ground floor, moved upwards and then engulfed the entire building.