Kolkata hospital fire: Director gets bail

Kolkata, April 12 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court Thursday granted bail to AMRI Hospital director S.K. Todi, who was booked with 15 others in connection with the fire tragedy at the medical centre that claimed 94 lives last December.

"A division bench of the Calcutta High Court comprising Justices A.K. Roy and A.K. Ray granted bail to S.K. Todi. The investigation is complete and the chargesheet has been filed so the court granted the relief," AMRI counsel S. Chakraborty said. Todi was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Todi is the last of the nine arrested directors to be released on bail. Of the 16 accused, 12 have been granted the relief while three others, who all are directors, have been absconding. The only person who is still behind bars is the hospital's chief security officer Sajid Hussain who was arrested Jan 23.

While executive director Dayanand Agarwal and additional general manager (maintenance) Sanjib Pal were granted bail by the Alipore sessions judge Tuesday, directors Manish Goenka and Ravi Todi were granted bail April 2 after serving 116 days in custody.

The first person to be granted bail in the case was Mani Chhetri, the managing director of the hospital who got the relief Feb 2.

The Dec 9 pre-dawn blaze at 3.30 a.m in the hospital, located in South Kolkata's Dhakuria, choked to death mostly critically ill patients -- many of them in their sleep -- and two nurses. Most doctors and other staffers were able to get away.