Gorakhpur hospital's suspended principal sent to judicial custody; 1256 deaths at BRD Medical College in 2017

Gorakhpur: The suspended principal of BRD Medical College Rajiv Mishra and his wife Poornima were sent to 14 days judicial custody by an anti-corruption court here on Thursday.

They were arrested on Tuesday by Uttar Pradesh's Special Task Force (STF) after more than 60 children, including infants, died in a span of six days at Baba Raghav Das Medical College.

The BRD medical college attracted global attention when more than 60 children, including infants, died at the hospital within a span of a week in August. The deaths reportedly happened due to disruption in the oxygen supply by the vendor who was not paid for several months. The charge, however, was denied by the Yogi Adityanath government.

Meanwhile, BRD Medical College principal PK Singh has has recorded 1,256 deaths since January 2017.

Giving a detailed accoount of the deaths, Singh said the toll in January was 152, in February 122, March 159, April 123, May 139, June 137 and 128 in July.

While the Uttar Pradesh government has vehemently denied that lack of oxygen led to the deaths, a high-powered probe committee headed by Chief Secretary Rajeev Kumar indicted Mishra and others on laxity and other charges.

Dr Mishra was accused of sitting over payments to the vendor supplying oxygen gas to the hospital, the disruption of which allegedly led to the deaths of many children.

Earlier, an FIR was lodged against Misra, along with six other hospital personnel, and two officials of the oxygen-supplying agency Pushpa Sales Private Limited, Manish Bhandari and Uday Pratap Sharma under the charges of criminal negligence.

Cases were registered under various sections of the IPC, Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Medical Council Act against Dr Rajiv Mishra, Dr Purnima Shukla, Dr Kafeel Khan, Dr Satish, Chief Pharmacist Gajanan Jaiswal, Accountant Sudhir Pandey, Assistant Clerk, Uday Pratap Sharma of Pushpa Sales and Manish Bhandari.

CM Adityanath had formed the committee on August 12, a day after the deaths of children were reported at the hospital.