The police on Tuesday arrested two senior officials of the AMRI Hospital – promoted jointly by Emami and Shrachi groups – in connection with the devastating fire at its Dhakuria facility on December 9. With these, the number arrests in the case rose to nine.
The two persons arrested are Dr S. Upadhyay, senior vice-president and the hospital's safety committee chairman, and Mr Sanjib Pal, administrative officer of the hospital.
The two officials were later produced before Alipore Chief Judicial Magistrate's court, which remanded them to police custody till December 23.
Seven directors of the hospital, Mr R.S. Agarwal, Mr S.K. Todi, Mr Ravi Todi, Mr R.S. Goenka, Mr Prashant Goenka, Mr Manish Goenka and Mr Dayanand Agarwal (executive director of AMRI) have already been arrested by the police.
A preliminary report on the fire at the hospital submitted today said inflammatory articles and PVC pipes were kept in the basement of the building from where the fire originated, asphyxiating 93 people to death.
According to West Bengal Disaster Management Minister, Mr Javed Khan, the preliminary report, so submitted states that that inflammatory articles and PVC pipes stocked in the basement due to which the fire spread quickly. The report also mentioned that the deaths were caused due to suffocation caused by smoke and none was burnt.