Gorakhpur tragedy: Court grants bail to HOD, Anesthesia Department

Allahabad: The Allahabad High Court today granted bail to Satish Kumar, one of the nine accused in the death of children at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur last year, due to alleged disruption in oxygen supply.

Kumar was Head of the anaesthesia department and reportedly working as in-charge of oxygen supply at the
state-run hospital.

Responding to a plea submitted by the accused, Justice Yashwant Varma said the petitioner was entitled for bail.

In his plea, Kumar stated that he had been languishing in jail for the last seven months. He also said that the co-accused in the case had been released on bail.

He claimed that he was in-charge of oxygen maintenance and not of oxygen supply at the hospital at the time of the incident, hence he had no role in the said tragedy.

However, opposing the bail application, the state counsel pleaded that the case was a very serious one and it was due to the alleged role of the petitioner that the oxygen supply was stopped.

The council said the petitioner was involved along with others in receiving kickbacks from those responsible for providing oxygen supply to the hospital.

Hence, the accused does not deserve to be released on bail, the advocate added.

An FIR was registered on August 23, 2017 against nine persons in connection with the death of over 30 children at the medical college on August 10-11 that year allegedly due to disruption in oxygen supply.

Among the nine accused, the high court had granted bail to Manish Bhandari, director of the oxygen supplier company Pushpa Sales, and Kafeel Khan.

The court had earlier denied bail to Purnima Shukla, wife of another accused in the case, and former principal of the medical college Rajiv Mishra.