New Delhi: At first, the two-storey building on a busy road, dissecting the blocks of Vivek Vihar colony in East Delhi’s Shahdara district, seems like any other. But a closer look points one in the direction of what neighbours say was a refilling centre for oxygen cylinders on the ground floor and above it, a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) on the first floor.
Complaints and murmurs aside, neighbours say they had accepted this arrangement as a fait accompli, until late Saturday night when a massive fire engulfed the building, claiming the lives of six newborns at the Baby Care New Born Hospital located on the first floor.
Delhi Police in its initial investigation found that the building did not have any fire safety arrangements including an emergency exit or fire extinguishers.
Charred walls and shattered glass are all that remain of the cramped space that functioned as a NICU until Saturday night. The definite silence inside was in complete contrast to the screams outside of anguished parents whose newborns were admitted to the NICU for various reasons.
Police officials say of the 12 newborns under treatment at the NICU at the time of the incident, one died before the fire, and others were shifted to another NICU in D-Block of Vivek Vihar where six were declared dead on arrival. Five newborns, evacuated from the Baby Care New Born Hospital by residents of the area, are still under treatment.
On Sunday, police arrested Dr Naveen Kichi, the owner of the NICU, along with his associate Aakash who holds a Bachelor of Alternative Medical Science (B.A.S.M. Alt.) degree and added stringent IPC sections including 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 308 (attempts to culpable homicide) to the FIR lodged in the case.
Naming Dr Kichi as an accused, the initial case was registered under IPC sections 304A (causing death by negligence), 336 (any reckless or negligent action that puts human life in danger or threatens personal safety) and 34 (common intention).
Though there is little clarity as to whether the building required a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) — it is based on the height of the building — Delhi Police found the NICU was operating on a licence issued by the Delhi government’s Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) which had expired on 31 March.
Further, DCP (Shahdara) Surendra Choudhary told ThePrint Sunday that the expired licence was for a sanctioned strength of five beds, but the NICU was also found to be in violation of it since it had admitted more than 10 newborns. To add to that, the doctor in charge of the NICU Saturday night holds only a Bachelor of Alternative Medical Science degree which means he was unqualified to handle the intensive care unit, DCP Choudhary added.
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Residents say saw it coming
For those living in the immediate neighbourhood, an incident like the fire accident Saturday was something they had feared for a long time.
Devansh Gupta, 21, says although there was the NICU on the first floor, the building was better known for the oxygen refilling centre on the ground floor which he claims had been functional for many years now. Gupta says he first heard a loud blast around 11:35 pm Saturday but could not figure out what it was. This was followed by another blast.
As Gupta and others stepped out of their houses, they realised the scale and intensity of the blaze that had engulfed the building housing the NICU.
Puja Verma, 39, says she thought at first that this was a minor fire accident and realised the intensity of it only once she stepped out of her house.
“We evacuated the newborns one by one. Even by midnight, the fire brigade was calling the numbers we had used to alert them, to confirm the location of the fire. We pulled out ladders and began the evacuation of kids even before the firefighters arrived,” says Verma.
Iti Malik, 40, a resident of C-Block where the Baby Care New Born Hospital was located, suggests that the NICU had been operating there for at least four years — a claim also made by Gupta and Verma.
Nearly all residents of C-Block ThePrint spoke to say they had complained to the police about a oxygen refilling centre functioning in the midst of a densely populated area and how it was also leading to traffic congestion, but no action was initiated in this regard.
On condition of anonymity, one resident tells ThePrint that the land on which the building stands may have been disputed, which is why the NICU owner was able to rent out the building and run two businesses at once.
AAP, BJP blame game
As the news of deaths of newborns spread, politicians from across the spectrum rushed to Vivek Vihar before making claims and counter-claims.
Among them was Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva who accused the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government in Delhi of being lenient when it came to regulations about fire safety.
“Such accidents happen all the time in Delhi. We have seen this in Mundka, Karol Bagh, and Alipur but the Delhi government is sitting with its eyes closed. It always calls for a probe but nothing comes out of it. There is a need to learn a lesson from such incidents,” Sachdeva told reporters.
Ramnivas Goel, the local AAP MLA, said a detailed inquiry will be held over the incident. He, however, also alleged that the Baby Care New Born Hospital started functioning when the area was under the jurisdiction of the erstwhile East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC).
“There will definitely be an inquiry into this tragedy, but questions should also be raised at BJP, which was ruling EDMC when this hospital started operations,” Goyal told reporters outside the NICU in D-Block where five rescued newborns are under treatment.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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