Amid speculations of his already having fled abroad, the Commissionerate police on Wednesday issued a lookout notice for Siksha ‘O’ University Charitable trustees, Manoj Ranjan Nayak and wife Saswati Das, to prevent them from moving out of country.
Commissioner of Police YB Khurania told reporters that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been informed about the lookout circular against Nayak and his wife after police registered separate cases against the SOA management for the death of 21 persons in a major fire that broke out at the SUM Hospital on Monday. The notice would now make them wanted at all the international airports.
Siksha ‘O’Anusandahan Charitable Trust runs the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, besides many other educational institutes and a TV channel and an Odia daily.
Meanwhile, speculations are rife whether Nayak would be arrested for the killer fire incident in the hospital.
Government agencies, after their preliminary inquiries, have found serious lapses in the fire and some other security measures in the hospital.
Even police have arrested four SUM Hospital officials, including its superintendent Pusparaj Samantasinghar, the demand for arrest of Nayak, the real boss of the healthcare centre, is getting louder every minute.
As the two Government FIRs filed by the Fire Service department and the Directorate of Medical Education and Training (DMET) have named the hospital management as the culprit of the killing of patients, it is perceived that Nayak being the actual head of the management should also come under the police investigation purview for the sake of a fair and fruitful probe into the causes behind the fire disaster, the kind of which is the first in Odisha.
Meanwhile, Directorate of Medical Education & Training (DMET) Prakash Chandra Mohapatra said since we have filed a case against the management of the SUM Hospital, there was a chance of arrest of Nayak, who is also a member of the management.
On the other hand a large number of people staged a demonstration in front of the hospital demanding arrest of Nayak and more compensation to the deceased’s families. They even branded Nayak as land broker and sought immediate criminal proceedings against him.
However, Nayak is not at his house located near the hospital.
In yet another development, hours after the Union Health Minister left Odisha after first hand examination, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday announced Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those killed in the SUM Hospital fire.
He also sanctioned Rs 50,000 to each of those seriously injured from the PM’s National Relief Fund.
The official death toll due to the fire mishap at the city-based SUM Hospital mounted to 21 with one more patient succumbing to injuries at the AIIMS here on Wednesday.
The deceased Janaki Hui of Jaleswar in Baleswar district had been shifted to a private hospital without the knowledge of her attendants soon after the fire broke out at the SUM Hospital.
“She had remained untraced for at least six/seven hours after the accident on Monday night. We traced her admitted at the Shree Hospital and shifted her in a very critical condition to the AIIMS,” son of the deceased said.
Her condition started deteriorating during shifting to the other health centres after the fire mishap.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday announced Rs 5 lakh as compensation to the family of each dead patient. The SOA University management, which runs the SUM Hospital, has already announced Rs 5-lakh assistance to every victim’s family.
At least 19 persons had died on the day of the incident while another two succumbed on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, at the AIIMS.
In another significant development, SUM Hospital superintendent Pusparaj Samantasinghar, who has been arrested along with three other hospital officials in connection with the fire mishap, was admitted at the SCB Medical College Hospital, Cuttack on Tuesday night following a reported cardiac problem.
Samantsinghar is now in the cardiology department ICU while two police personnel are guarding him.