Delhi hospital blaze; no fire dept clearance?

New Delhi: Seven new borns were killed and five injured in a massive fire at a private neonatal hospital in east Delhi's Vivek Vihar that was allegedly operating illegally with an "expired " licence and no clearance from the fire department, according to officials.

Police said on Sunday they arrested the hospital's owner Dr Naveen Khichi and Dr Aaksh, who was on duty at the time of the incident on Saturday night.

According to a report submitted by the District Magistrate (Shahdara) to the Delhi Divisional Commissioner, there were 12 babies admitted in the hospital at the time of the incident. While one died on the spot, 11 were shifted to a hospital in the vicinity where six were declared dead on arrival.

The deceased children included four boys and three girls. All were 15 days old except one boy aged 25 days. The bodies have been shifted to the GTB Hospital for postmortem, the police said.

A case has been registered at Vivek Vihar police station under IPC sections 336 (act endangering life and personal safety of others) and 304A (causing death by negligence), 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide).

The initial cause of the fire is stated to be a short circuit but a probe is on, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Surendra Choudhary said. Officials of the Fire Department said that the hospital did not have a clearance from the department.

"The building has no fire NOC. We will also check documents related to the NOC on Monday," an official of the DFS said, requesting anonymity.

Officials of the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) said the blaze broke out at the Baby Care New Born Hospital at around 11:30 pm on Saturday and soon spread to two other adjacent buildings. Oxygen cylinders kept in the two-storey building exploded due to which the adjacent buildings were damaged, he said.

The owner Naveen Khichi, who lives in Pachim Vihar area, is an MD in Pediatric Medicine and runs this hospital with his wife Dr Jagriti, who is a dentist, Choudhary said. Among the grieving parents was Ansaar whose daughter was born at another hospital on May 15.

"She developed some health issues and was admitted to this hospital," he said. For Masialam, a labourer, tragedy struck again after 5 years. "I lost my son then ago. On Saturday, my newborn son died. What facilities do they have?" he asked.

Glaring lapses come to light

The police said besides an expired licence, the hospital also did not have qualified doctors and had no clearance from the fire department.

"We got to know that the doctors are not qualified/ competent to treat the newborn children as they are BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery) degree holders only," said the DCP. There was no fire extinguisher in the hospital and there was no emergency exit, he said. (PTI)