Children's death: Suspended Medical College principal, wife arrested

More than a fortnight after 30 children died owing to alleged shortage of oxygen at the BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur, the suspended former principal of the college Dr Rajiv Mishra and his wife Dr Purnima were arrested by the UP police on Tuesday.
 
The couple was arrested by the special task force (STF) of the police from Kanpur while they were planning to ''flee'' to Allahabad, police sources here said.
 
Mishra and his wife, whose names also figured in the FIRs registered against nine persons in connection with the tragedy, had visited a lawyer in Kanpur for seeking ''legal advice'', sources said.
 
Mishra, who was accused of deliberately delaying payment to the Oxygen supplying company as a result of which it stopped the supply, had rejected the allegations of laxity against him and claimed that he had resigned before being suspended owing moral responsibility for the death of the children.
 
The STF sleuths also raided the residence of Dr Kafeel Khan, suspended former in-charge of the Encephalitis ward at the Medical College, in Gorakhpur late on Monday night but he was not found there. Kafeel had also been booked in the case.
 
The other accused in the matter had been absconding.
 
Thirty children, mostly new born, had died allegedly owing to shortage of oxygen at the hospital in a period of 36-hours between August 10 and 11.
 
The deaths triggered a nationwide outcry and chief minister Yogi Adityanath, found himself on the back foot, especially since Gorakhpur happened to be his Lok Sabha constituency.
 
Contradictory versions on the deaths emerged from the two official probe reports into the tragedy. While the Gorakhpur district magistrate's probe report admitted disruption in Oxygen supply, another official report held the hospital administration responsible for the tragedy.  Both reports claimed that shortage of oxygen was not behind the deaths.