FIR lodged against Agra hospital owners, management after being sealed over 22 deaths during mock drill

Agra/Lucknow:Taking a strict action on the alleged viral video of a private hospital in Agra which had reported 22 deaths due to oxygen shortage in a mock drill, the district authorities have sealed the hospital and FIR has been registered against the management and the owners.

After a video of Shri Paras Hospital went viral, now the hospital is being sealed on the orders of DM.Along with this, instructions have been given to register a case against the people who managed the hospital under the Epidemic Act.

Additional chief secretary Home has ordered to register a case against the owner of Paras Hospital too.In a viral video of Paras Hospital, 22 serious patients were reported to have died in five minutes due to mock drill in oxygen crisis.

Remember 22 patients who died in Agra’s Paras Hospital on 26th April, turns out it was man made disaster. Hospital administrators turned off O2 supply for 5 min to find which patients can survive. He calls it a mock drive. This is value of life in India. pic.twitter.com/YVm61pUbHF

— Amaan (@amaanbali) June 8, 2021

In the video, a person, the operator of the hospital, says that 22 people had died. This whole conversation is in the context of the Oxygen Crisis that surfaced on April 26/27 last.

The government records, however says that four corona patients died in Sri Paras Hospital on April 26.

Earlier, District Magistrate Prabhu Narayan Singh had said that there was a shortage of oxygen on April 26/27. But the whole night the administration team along with the health department kept delivering oxygen to the hospitals.He had said that on April 26, altogether 97 patients of corona were admitted to Shri Paras Hospital, out of which four had died.

The DM said there were 4 deaths due to Covid on that day and 3 more next day. ADM (city) and additional CMO have been named to investigate the matter.

"We'll verify video and probe accordingly. But reports of 22 deaths is incorrect. No death due to lack of oxygen at hospital," Mr Singh said

He further said, "We have investigated the private conversations on April 28 that took place in their personal chamber. Preliminary inquiry suggests that Paras Hospital was provided with 121, 117 and 135 D-type cylinders and as per requirement and they were sufficient," Agra DM said.

The hospital manager and owner, Arinjay Jain, can be heard saying in the viral video, “We were told by the chief minister that there will be no supply of oxygen. Modi Nagar is dry. We began to tell families. Some listened, but others refused to leave. Let’s see after doing a mock drill, we will figure out who will die and who will survive. The mock drill took place at seven in the morning, no one knew about it. In five minutes 22 patients died. They began turning blue in five minutes."

The video is said to be from April 28. At the time at least 96 Covid patients admitted to the hospital at that time.As per claims in the viral video, out of 96 only 74 patients survived. Four videos of Jain have gone viral in which he was narrating the story.

Jain, however , now has denied the allegations and claimed that the videos were distorted.

In the matter, Uttar Pradesh government's spokesperson and cabinet minister Siddharth Nath Singh said that stern action wouod be taken against the guilty people.

Describing the matter as a heinous crime, Mr Singh maintained that government will not spare anyone.

Meanwhile Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had tweeted on the matter and has demanded action against the guilty people.

He wrote, “There is a severe shortage of both oxygen and humanity in the BJP regime. Action should be taken immediately against all those responsible for this dangerous crime. My condolences to the families of the deceased in this hour of grief."

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too have accused the Yogi government of trying to cover up the deaths due to shortage of oxygen in UP.(UNI)