AMRI Fire: Court extends police custody of directors

Kolkata, Dec 21: A West Bengal court has extended the police custody by three days of the six accused directors of AMRI hospital who are facing charges in the devastating hospital fire case that left 93 people dead.

Those arrested were RS Goenka, Manish Prashant, DN Agarwal, SK Todi and Ravi Todi. The Alipore Chief Judicial Magistrate Court had remanded them in police custody for ten days.

The court order read, "In the interest of justice and for the purposes of investigation, this court thinks fit to extend the police custody of accused No.1 to 6 (AMRI directors) till Dec 23."

The Court had asked Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial (SSKM) hospital to submit the medical report of RS Agarwal, the seventh accused director. Though, the hospital failed to produce it on Tuesday during the court hours.

Amitava Ganguly and Ashok Mukherjee, defence counsels moved the bail petition for the accused and argued that since they being directors, they were not involved in the daily affairs of the hospital. They further claimed that such persons cannot be held directly liable for the cause.

They also pleaded that the statements issued by the accused were extra-judicial and not admissible in court. It is a case of Fire Services Act and section 304 A IPC, all of which are bailable offences, they contended.

OneIndia News