By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net
Eight months after the arrest of the doctors and other staff of the BRD Medical College in relation to the death of about 300 infants in August last year, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has expressed solidarity with doctors arrested and demanded their early release from the prison.
The members of IMA held a press meet on Monday and expressed their concern over the health of the doctors which are behind the bars.
IMA has also shown dissatisfaction over the treatment being given to the doctors inside the jail and has alleged conspiracy behind the administrative action. Dr. RP Shukla, the secretary at IMA, told media on Monday, “After the alleged oxygen shortage scandal, which happened in August 2017, our friends-doctors Rajiv Mishra, Satish Kumar and Kafeel Ahmad Khan were put in jail with heavy sections imposed on them. We found nothing strange in it.”
“But now we have been receiving reports that they are being tortured, their bail applications are being denied and they are not being provided proper medical care. We smell a conspiracy behind it,” added Dr. Shukla.
The IMA panelists raised the question that if the state government does not think that infants died because of the shortage of the oxygen, it must answer that why the doctors are still behind the bars. They said that the doctors – which have very limited authority – are being used as mere scapegoats to cover the real corruption which resulted in such events.
Dr. JP Jaiswal, the president at IMA, said, “During the last eight months, the government has not tried to go into finding the root cause of the infants’ deaths. One can never stop such incidents from happening again without finding the actual reason lying behind.”
The controversy was discovered last year when it was reported that encephalitis stricken infants were dying in Gorakhpur-based Baba Raghavdas Medical College due to the scarcity of the oxygen. A few days later, Siddharth Nath Singh, the health minister in UP government, refuted the oxygen shortage allegation and termed the deaths a “natural process”.
However, doctors, staff members as well as the head of the oxygen supplying firm were caught and put behind the bars. On Monday, the Supreme Court has granted bail to Manish Bhandari, whose firm was responsible for supplying oxygen to BRD medical college.
Dr. Shabista Khan, the wife of Dr. Kafeel Khan, was also present at the press meet on Monday. Dr. Khan said, “My husband tried to save lives of the children in the hospital that night. He tried to manage oxygen from wherever he could but still, he has been made responsible for deaths.”
“I have met chief minister Yogi Adityanath for the release of my husband, but the administration is paying no heed,” said Khan.
According to reports, the imprisoned doctors have reported health complications in the prison and according to sources, they are not being provided proper medical care.
Read more:
Gorakhpur tragedy: Corruption, private practice charges dropped against Dr Kafeel Ahmad Khan
Infant deaths in Gorakhpur: Oxygen supplier of BRD medical college gets bail