Two held for Virar hospital fire as more irregularities emerge

Two directors of Virarbased Vijay Vallabh Hospital where 15 COVID patients died of asphyxiation in a predawn fire on Friday were arrested on Sunday as the hospital failed to get its fire safety audit done and its fire NOC had expired in March The arrested accused Managing Director and CEO Dr Dilip Shah and Chief Administrative Officer Dr Shailesh Pathak were produced before the holiday court and remanded in a dayrsquos police custodyDr Dilip Shah managing director and CEO of the hospital and Dr Shailesh Pathak chief administrative officerMIDDAY highlighted in an exclusive report on Sunday that the hospitalrsquos fire NOC expired on March 13 A senior police officer told midday that the hospital never got its fire risk audit report in place to secure an NOC from the fire departmentWhile Dr Shah and Dr Pathak are partners of the hospital Dr Shahrsquos father Bastimal Shah is the third partner He accused the police of illegally detaining the two doctors on the hospital premises ldquoThe police told my son Dr Shah and Dr Pathak not to leave the premises and they were kept under illegal detentionrdquo Bastimal said ldquoBoth of them are doctors but they were treated like criminals After the tragic incident the hospital is in a messy condition yet both doctors were forced to stay inside the premises where mosquitoes have been a great nuisance I arranged a mosquito net for himrdquo Bastimal addedldquoWith the airconditioning closed they were forced to stay in the heat and did not get sound sleeprdquo Bastimal added ldquoPolice mentally harassed them before arresting them on Sunday My house is hardly a few minutes away from the hospital the police could have allowed Dr Shah to stay thererdquo Bastimal saidlsquoClaims are falsersquoHowever a crime branch officer said ldquoWe asked both directors of the hospital to stay there as a number of teams from different departments including police municipality and power had been visiting the site to expedite the investigation They were not mentally or physically tortured The allegations are falserdquoVijay Vallabh Hospitalrsquos ICU ward before the fireldquoWe wanted them to stay to assist in the investigation and respond to our queries as there was a continuous flow of officials We too were present in the hospital premisesrdquo the officer clarified Another crime branch officer said ldquoThe hospital never got their fire risk audit donerdquomidday also learnt that the hospital secured its fire NOC from Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation VVCMC without getting a fire risk audit after the three partners started running the hospital in May 2018Sources said that the Directorate of Maharashtra Fire Service has formed a team to investigate the case It will visit the hospital soon Police have also asked the team to help them understand the technicalities involved in acquiring a fire NOC and the importance of fire risk auditA senior crime branch officer said ldquoIf VVCMC officials are found to be involved in irregularities in issuing the fire NOC we will book them toordquoOfficials from the energy department conducted a survey ldquoThe team was trying to determine how the explosion took place inside the AC unit They took details of when and from where the AC unit was purchased if it was overloaded etc They took dimensions of the ICU to understand if the three ACs were sufficient They checked each and every electrical appliance cable size switch gear panel boards etc as per the Electricity Rules and Electricity Actrdquo Bastimal saidBastimal ShahBastimal added that he was asleep when Dr Shahrsquos wife called to inform him about the fire ldquoDr Shah lives in Kandivli with his family and Dr Pathak lives in Mira Road Both of them were home when the incident took placerdquo Basitmal saidldquoMy daughterinlaw called around 240 am By the time I reached the hospital one fire engine was there and the patients were being rescued and the fire was dousedrdquo he recalledlsquoNo negligence on our partrsquoldquoThe AC which exploded was recently repaired There was no negligence on the hospitalrsquos part a spark caused a major disaster No amount of fire extinguishers or fire NOC could have averted the incident which happened in a fraction of a second It is true that there were no sprinklers inside the ICUrdquo Bastimal saidDeputy Commissioner of Police Crime Dr Mahesh Patil told midday ldquoWe have recorded the statements of eight people including hospital staff and others connected to the incident We have been conducting a thorough investigation which is in full swingrdquoThe investigation that led to the arrests in 48 hours has been one of the swiftest Crime Branch sources said that private agency RAV Fire Services which was hired by the hospital to give Fire Annual Maintenance Contract AMC has not been given a clean chit yetldquoThe role of RAV Fire Services is not seen anywhere as per the documents provided by themrdquo an officer said The police have also sent CCTV camera footage from the hospital to the Forensic Science LaboratoryThe hospital also did not submit its Form B related to maintenance of fire safety with the fire department in January ldquoWhen we asked the directors they said they were busy in COVID work but this is an excuse We have gathered enough evidence in the past two daysrdquo an officer said240 amTime the Virar hospitalrsquos third partner Bastimal Shah got a call about the fire