Majority of bodies of AMRI fire victims handed over

Kolkata, Dec 11: Civic authorities on Saturday sealed two blocks of the fire-ravaged private AMRI Hospital in Kolkata even as authorities handed over majority of the bodies of the 90 people killed to their relatives. The postmortem of 87 of the total 90 who were choked to death due to the fire on Friday was completed last night and the autopsy of the rest three would be done during the day, police said.

The police, however, did not give the number of bodies handed over to their families.

Family members of 65 year-old Bangladesh resident Gouranga Mondal, who was among the victims, have reached the morgue to receive his body. Mondal's body would be flown to his country, the police said.

The body of a resident of Tripura would also be handed over to his family on Saturday.

Meanwhile, two blocks of the fire-ravaged private hospital was sealed this morning by city civic authorities.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has already cancelled the licence of the hospital on the charge of gross negligence and lapse.

A few patients are, however, still inside the old block of the hospital which was unaffected in the blaze. Their worried relatives waited outside as there were no doctors or nursing staff to provide any treatment or attend to them.

The number of patients in the old block was not provided by the police or the hospital authorities.

All the seven directors of the hospital had surrendered to the police yesterday and were later arrested for culpable homicide and negligence. They would be produced before the court during the day.

90 people, most of them patients in sleep, were yesterday choked to death in the fire suspected to have been caused by inflammable material stored in the basement of a multi-speciality private hospital.

PTI