Kolkata police submit charge sheet in AMRI fire

West Bengal, Mar 2: Kolkata Police today submitted the charge-sheet against all 16 accused in the AMRI fire, in which 91 people were killed last year.

Of the 16 persons named in the 1,300-page charge-sheet, 12 are AMRI directors and the other four are employees of the hospital.

The charge-sheet — filed under Sections 304, 308,285 of the IPC and 11(C), 11(I) and 11(L) of the West Bengal Fire Services Act — has named three absconders — Rahul Todi, Priti Surekha and Aditya Agarwal. The three directors have been absconding since the fire.

According to a counsel of the state, the directors were responsible for the December 9 blaze.

After filing the charge-sheet, advocate Shakitpada Banerjee, counsel of the state, urged the CJM court in Alipore not to grant bail to the other directors as they might influence the witnesses. There are a total of 455 witnesses in the charge-sheet.

Dr Mani Chetri today appeared in the court. Sukanya Roy, CJM court judge, confirmed his bail on the ground that the charge-sheet had been filed.

The counsels of R S Goenka, S K Todi, Rabi Todi, Prasant Goenka and Manish Goenka moved bail petitions on the ground that the charge-sheet had been filed and no further detention was required when investigation is over. But the CJM court rejected their bail plea and extended their jail custody till March 7.

The court also fixed March 7 to hand over the charge-sheet to the accused persons.

PTI