‘Chargesheet against AMRI directors mechanical’

KOLKATA: The chargesheet against AMRI Hospitals directors Radheshyam Goenka and Prasant Goenka is mechanical, their counsel and former state advocate general Balai Chandra Roy argued before Calcutta high court’s division bench of Justice A K Roy and Justice A K Ray on Thursday. The hearing will continue on Friday.

Roy said while the chargesheet states, “In a hospital, a fire can take place”, it is not clear what role could directors have in an accidental fire.

Roy also argued that there was no specific allegation against the two accused. The charge against the directors is that they neglected the fire safety clause of the hospital. The two accused are in custody for 97 days while the investigation has been completed, Roy added.

Debashis Roy, state public prosecutor, said the state has already filed a special leave petition in Supreme Court against the bail granted by Calcutta high court to another AMRI director Radeshyam Agrawal on February 17.

The City Diary

Burglars arrested
Six men were arrested on Friday for two robberies at Mathpara in Khardah last Sunday. Four of the arrested were picked up from near Sodepur and the rest from Barrackpore. A gold chain, six silver utensils and Rs 12,500, a part of the Rs 80,000 booty the gang had taken from the homes of two traders, were recovered. A 9mm pistol and some ammunition were also found on them.

AMRI bail
The bail petition of Satyabrata Upadhyay, senior vice-president (projects) and head of the safety committee of AMRI Hospitals, Dhakuria, could not be heard on Friday at a district and sessions court in Alipore as defence counsel Milan Mukherjee was out of station. Judge Anindya Bhattacharjee has fixed March 16 as the next date of hearing .

Civic budget
Mayor Sovan Chatterjee will place the Trinamul Congress-run civic board’s third budget on Saturday. The focus, civic officials said, will be on the beautification of the city.

Accident
A school bus ran over a pedestrian on AJC Bose Road around 1.30pm on Friday. The injured, Sahabuddin, 50, was taken to SSKM Hospital in an unconscious state.

Chhetri gets interim bail

AMRI Hospitals managing director Mani Chhetri, 91, has been granted interim bail but Pronab Dasgupta, the other doctor-member of the board behind bars, will remain in police custody till February 6.

The judicial custody of directors S.K. Todi and D.N. Agarwal, lodged in Alipore Central jail, has been extended till February 16.

Three other directors — Manish Goenka, Prashant Goenka and Ravi Todi — moved the high court for bail on Wednesday. Two others, R.S. Goenka and R.S. Agarwal, had done so earlier.

The Alipore chief judicial magistrate, C.H. Karim, allowed bail till February 16 to Chhetri because of his health. The doctor has been in the intensive coronary care unit of SSKM Hospital since his arrest on January 27.

The bail has been granted against a surety of Rs 20,000 and with the condition that Chhetri could not leave Calcutta and would have to hand over his passport to the investigating officer.

Chhetri’s lawyer Samaraditya Pal said the 91-year-old doctor had been suffering from serious illnesses, which had been mentioned in the report submitted by SSKM Hospital. “In the past seven days, Chhetri had suffered internal haemorrhage, causing blood-clots in his hands. It may turn out to be fatal if the haemorrhage attacks his brain.”

Pal said the prosecution had wrongly claimed that Chhetri did not bother to visit the hospital the day the fire broke out. “He rushed to the spot around 5am, as soon as he came to know of the incident. He spoke to fire brigade officers and the director of medical education and told them to take all kinds of measures to save patients’ lives.”

Pal claimed that Chhetri was not managing director of the hospital when the fire broke out. “He had resigned in March 2011.” AMRI sources, however, later told Metro that he was at the helm when the fire broke out.

Opposing the bail plea, public prosecutor Shaktinath Bhattacharya submitted that the police were concerned about Chhetri’s health. “He was promptly admitted to the SSKM ICCU after he complained of chest pain. Let him be there under the observation of doctors. If his health improves within seven days, the stipulated duration of police custody, the police will interrogate him with the permission of doctors. He may be taken to some places from where crucial documents could be recovered.”

Bhattacharya also referred to Chhetri’s petition which stated that he looked after healthcare at AMRI Dhakuria. “The safety of the patients falls under the hospital’s healthcare system.”

After listening to both sides, the magistrate granted interim bail to Chhetri. “He (Chhetri) cannot be made ambulant at this moment. He needs to be under close observation of doctors,” he read out from the order around 9.30pm, some four hours after the hearing ended.

Chhetri’s son Milan, a doctor at a private hospital, thanked chief minister Mamata Banerjee following the order.

Arguing for Pronab Dasgupta’s bail, Tapen Roychowdhury said his client needed special care as both his knees had been replaced. “If granted bail, he won’t flee or tamper with evidence. Besides, he was supposed to perform surgeries on a number of patients. At the least, he should be allowed to sleep on an orthopaedic bed, which he requires,” Roychowdhury said.

Arranging an orthopaedic bed would not be possible for the police, replied the public prosecutor. “If Dasgupta’s family wants to provide it, we have no objection.”

The police custody of AMRI officials Preeta Banerjee and Sajid Hossain has been extended till February 6. The judicial custody of two others, Satyabrata Upadhyay and Sanjib Pal, has been extended till February16.

Doc body bats for AMRI doc duo

The arrested doctor-directors of AMRI Hospitals have found support in the biggest association of fellow professionals, just as the industrialist-directors had trade body Ficci to back them.

The state wing of the Indian Medical Association, which has around 14,000 members and is now headed by Trinamul functionaries and sympathisers, has decided to plead with the government to facilitate the bail of nonagenarian Mani Chhetri and Pranab Dasgupta.

“We will write to the state government to complete the legal formalities as early as possible so that the two doctors can be released on bail,” said Santanu Sen, the secretary of the state wing of the IMA and Trinamul councillor of ward 2 of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation.

“Mani Chhetri is a distinguished doctor and the professor of many of our professors. Pranab Dasgupta, too, is a reputable doctor. As members of the medical fraternity, we appeal to the government not to treat the two in the same way as the other accused,” said Sen, who took over as the secretary of the state wing of the association on December 8.

IMA sources said a formal appeal for leniency might not go down well with the chief minister, who had apparently ordered the doctor duo’s arrest, but widespread resentment in the ranks over the move had prompted the pitch.

The Association of Hospitals of Eastern India, too, is mulling a similar appeal in support of the doctors.

“We will meet soon and take a decision. Considering Chhetri’s age and his contribution to society, some leniency should be shown towards him,” said an office-bearer of the association of private hospitals.

Chhetri and Dasgupta were picked up on Friday morning and have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder for the December 9 fire at the Dhakuria hospital that led to the loss of 91 lives.

Chhetri is in the ICCU of SSKM Hospital, where he was shifted following complaints of chest pain soon after his arrest. Hospital sources said on Sunday his condition was “stable” but the police could not meet him.

Dasgupta, however, was questioned in the detective department in Lalbazar. Sources said the gynaecologist kept insisting that he had already shared with them whatever he knew about the running of the AMRI hospital.

The day the fire broke out the police had arrested seven members of the board — S.K. Todi, Ravi Todi, Prashant Goenka, Manish Goenka, Radheshyam Goenka, R.S. Agarwal and Dayanand Agarwal — and slapped the same charge on them as the two doctors.

The arrests had evoked strong reactions from the business community, with the Ficci issuing a statement on January 3, demanding the release of those not involved in the day-to-day affairs of the hospital. The association also accused the administration of discriminating against a particular community.

S K Birla to reward Dhakuria bravehearts

KOLKATA: S K Birla, the chairman emeritus of S K Birla Group and one of the senior members of the Birla family, will reward some of the local boys who risked their lives to save a number of patients from AMRI Hospitals last month.

Bharat Sevashram Sangha, the leading philanthropic institution, is associated with the initiative. “The heroic and selfless act of local youths deserves to be rewarded. This is our duty to encourage these people,” Birla said.

Birla has announced that he will fund the cost of job-oriented training for 16 boys who took part in the rescue operation. Bharat Sevashram Sangha, whose monks rushed to the spot soon after the fire broke out, is helping to identify the beneficiaries.

“We have found out that some of the young bravehearts were already pursuing vocational courses and, with the help of Bharat Sevashram Sangha, we’ve decided to fund the cost of education for 16 of them. I have no doubt that the initiative will encourage more young men to come forward with helping hand whenever needed,” Birla said.

In a letter acknowledging Birla’s initiative, Swami Biswatmananda, joint secretary, Bharat Sevashram Sangha, said: “We are happy to be associated with S K Birla Group for their endeavour to encourage the bravehearts by way of help for educational expenses, especially for the job related studies connected with technical and vocational courses.”

An official of S K Birla Group pointed out that the present initiative may be regarded as an extension of various welfare activities already being undertaken by the group in Kolkata and these include, among others, generous donations to Bharat Sevasharam Sangha for its massive hospital in South 24 Parganas district, running a school for bustee children at Chetla in association with Chetla Sri Ma Sarada Seva Kendra and medical vans in rural areas in association with Bharat Sevashram Sangha and Vivekananda Swasthya Seva Sangha.

AMRI action triggers panic resignations

KOLKATA: The state government’s tough stance against the directors of the AMRI Hospitals has sent ripples of panic across investors and industrialists in the state and triggered a resignation spree in the boards of some of the city’s top health care institutions.

At the official level, Bengal Inc wants to reassure the chief minister that it doesn’t have anything against the government on the industrial front. But in private circles, industrialists have spoken about how the treatment of the AMRI directors not involved in daily operations has created a sense of panic.

Sources said at least 10 directors and trustee members in the state’s private and trustee-run hospitals have put in their papers to “minimize the risk of harassment” in the event of an accident.

On Wednesday, a couple of days after industry chamber Ficci issued a statement urging the state government to release AMRI directors not involved in daily operations, its seceretary general Rajiv Kumar sought to reassure Mamata Banerjee about the Ficci’s commitment to the state’s industrialization .

“We want to invite the chief minister to Ficci’s first executive committee meeting under the next president , Raju Kanoria, in February . Our president-elect wants the meeting in Kolkata. We might call the CM tomorrow or the day after,” Kumar said. But sources said industry captains were unhappy about the way the AMRI directors had been booked while some other board members, who are not owners, had been left out.

Videocon chairperson Venugopal Dhoot said, “What happened at AMRI is very sad but elderly persons like R S Agarwal and R S Goenka (AMRI directors ) should not be arrested without trial. But personally, I’m bullish about the investment climate in Bengal.”

‘High risk’ job?

Anandlok Hospital director Arun Poddar has resigned during the last fortnight, sources said H P Kanoria has quit the trustee board of Vishuddhananda Saraswati Marwari Hospital Sadhuram Bansal and C L Agarwal, V-Ps of Marwari Relief Society, have resigned from the board At least five more city private hospitals are faced with such resignations.

Plea admitted:

Calcutta high court on Wednesday admitted a writ petition by AMRI Hospitals , seeking a direction to the city police commissioner to accept a cheque of Rs 4.45 crore to be disbursed among the kin of victims.

AMRI plea for cheque prod to police

AMRI Hospitals on Tuesday moved the high court with a request for an order to the city police to accept a cheque for Rs 4.45 crore and distribute the money to the families of 89 patients who died in the December 9 tragedy at the Dhakuria facility.

The management says it can’t distribute the compensation itself as the hospital has been shut down and has to route the money through the police.

“Our office is closed. Our officials are not being allowed to enter the premises. We expect the government to help us distribute the money,” said counsel Utpal Majumdar, who filed the AMRI petition, to be heard on Wednesday.

“My client had promised to pay Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the victims. The hospital is ready to make the payment, totalling Rs 4.5 crore. It wants to know from the court how to go about the process,” Majumdar said.

The hospital claimed that it had approached police commissioner R.K. Pachnanda four times, requesting him to accept the cheque and pay the money to the bereaved families.

“There was, however, no response from the other side. When we contacted him over the phone, he told us that he would call back in 10 minutes later. But till date we have not heard from the Calcutta police,” the petition states.

Pachnanda was unavailable for comment when Metro tried to call him. A senior officer at Lalbazar said distributing AMRI’s money to the victims’ families was beyond the force’s duty.

If the police chief declines to distribute the money to the kin of the victims, the hospital wants the court to appoint a special officer for the job.

The petition says 88 patients had died in the December 9 fire. “One patient had left the hospital a day before the incident and was admitted to SSKM Hospital. He died there. Her relatives are claiming she had died because of the fire. Whatever be the truth, we are ready to pay the compensation to her family,” the petition says.

The hospital has already paid compensation to the relatives of the two nurses who lost their lives in the fire.

Park Street begins New Year with office building

KOLKATA: The New Year’s Day celebratory mood turned into panic as fire engines screamed into Park Street shortly after noon on Sunday following a fire at the 10-storeyed Apeejay House. With horrors of last month’s fire at AMRI Hospitals and that at Stephen Court a year-and-a-half ago fresh in mind, revellers feared the worst.

Fortunately, the building that houses the headquarters of the century-old Apeejay Group and scores of other corporate offices was empty. The building was also better equipped to fight a fire. The fire brigade, on a razor’s edge since the AMRI tragedy, arrived within 10 minutes and the blaze was controlled in less than half an hour. It took another hour to douse the flames completely. Three persons – a private security guard and two firemen – suffered minor injuries.

However, it was a busy first day of the year for the firemen. Barely had they finished battling the blaze at Apeejay House that another fire broke out at a garment showroom at Sealdah. Eight fire tenders took nearly two hours to arrest the flames. Nobody was injured here.

At Park Street, where hundreds had already turned up for New Year’s lunch, the festive spirit dampened as police cordoned off the road around 12.15 pm. The fire brigade headquarters received at least 200 panic calls from people who were in the different restaurants and their anxious relatives back home. Many cut short their plans and returned home.

It was around noon that a security staff of Kotak Mahindra Bank spotted smoke billowing out of the server room on the seventh floor of Apeejay House. He alerted Amit Saha, the security staff posted at the adjoining office of ICICI Lombard General Insurance.

Saha called the building’s security who alerted the fire officers posted there and called the fire brigade. Ten fire tenders arrived within 10 minutes with a skylift. By then, flames were leaping out of a seventh floor window in Block C and had moved to the floor above.