Hours after a fire swept through a COVID-19 care facility set up inside a Bhandup mall which killed at least 9 patients on Friday, the Bhandup police have registered an offence of culpable homicide against the mall and COVID-19 care facility management. The First Information Report (FIR) was registered late on Friday night.
People who are booked include the mall directors Rakesh Wadhawan promotor of Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) along with his brother Sarang Wadhawan, Rakesh's daughter Nikita Trehan along with concerned people of now gutted Sunrise hospital and Privilege Healthcare which owns the hospital.
Confirming the development senior inspector of Bhandup police station Sham Shinde said, "We have registered an offence against the directors and hospital management under the Indian Penal Code section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 34 (common intention)".
The fire broke out on the first floor of Dreams mall late on Thursday night and quickly spread to the Sunrise hospital on the third floor of the mall. The fire brought under control after 20 hours. As per the officials 9 patients died by asphyxia while two died earlier. 78 patients were taken out of the hospital and shifted to other hospitals nearby.
The Sunrise Hospital housed inside Dreams mall at Bhandup was started in May 2020 after the civic body gave provisional Occupation Certificate as a special casee due to exceptional circumstances owing to the pandemic. The building was earlier received notices for construction irregularities and for fire safety violations.
