Fire tragedy: Arrested superintendent admitted to hospital

The superintendent of Sum Hospital, who was among the four officials arrested in connection with a major fire at the medical facility, was today admitted to the SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack after complaining of chest pain.

Pushparaj Samantasinghar was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Cardiology Department of the SCB Hospital, a police official said.

Besides Samantasinghar, police had arrested Electrical Maintenance Engineer Amulya Sahu, Fire Safety Officer Santosh Das and Junior Engineer (Electrical Maintenance) Malaya Kumar Sahu of the private hospital in connection with the blaze which killed 20 persons.

The arrests were made yesterday on the basis of the FIR lodged by the Directorate of Fire Services. The FIR was lodged at the Khandagiri police station here by B B Das, Fire Officer (Central Range).

Meanwhile, Director General of Fire Service Binay Behera yesterday submitted a report to the state government on the fire that ravaged parts of the private hospital.

Behera in his report has mentioned that fire safety norms as per the 2013 guidelines were not followed by the hospital authorities, an official said.