By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net
Dr Satish Kumar, one of accused in the tragedy at Baba Raghav Das Medical College, Gorakhpur in August 2017, was granted bail on Tuesday by Allahabad High Court. Kumar was the former head of the department of anesthesiology at the Medical College.
Dr Satish Kumar has been behind bars since September 11, 2017, for his alleged involvement in the case pertaining to the deaths of infants at BRD medical college between August 10-11. A critical shortage of oxygen that night caused the deaths of 23 children in just one night. However, state government and investigative agencies refuted the claim that there were deaths due to non-availability of oxygen in the hospital.
In the aftermath of the deaths in August last year, the UP government had formed a special task force (STF) which led to the arrests of Dr Kafeel Ahmed Khan, medical college principal Dr Rajiv Mishra, Dr Purnima Shukla, former Anaesthesia Department Head Dr Satish Kumar, ex-Chief Pharmacist Gajanan Jaiswal, Accounts departments clerks, Sudhir Pandey, Udai Sharma, Sanjay Tripathi and the owner of Pushpa Sales Manish Bhandari in September last year.
The accused were charged under various sections of Indian Penal Code pertaining to corruption, embezzlement of funds, private practice and criminal conspiracy.
While Manish Bhandari and Dr Kafeel Khan have been granted bail by the Allahabad High Court, the bail plea of Dr Satish Kumar was being delayed continuously. The charges on Satish Kumar and his subsequent arrest is also debatable as between the night of August 10 and 11, 2017, Kumar was in Mumbai with his family to attend the annual convocation at IIT-Mumbai of his son Tushar Rain, who had graduated from B.Tech.
According to his family members, Kumar took leave from August 9 and left for Mumbai on the night of August 10. Kumar reached Mumbai on August 11. He was to attend the convocation next day but the same day he heard about the deaths of infants in the BRD medical college.
His daughter Manjari told TwoCircles.net, “Papa did not attend the convocation and caught the flight on August 12. He came to Gorakhpur and joined the medical college on August 13.”
However, Rajiv Rautela, the district magistrate in Gorakhpur, had already prepared his report on the incident before Satish Kumar could even get back to work. Rautela mentioned in his report, which was prepared within 24 hours of the incident, that Kumar was absent from his duty without any application or notice from August 11.
Interestingly, while the state government insists that the deaths of the children were not because of the shortage of liquid oxygen in the hospital, in Rautela’s report Kumar was mentioned as the culprit responsible for the shortage of oxygen.
In the aftermath of the deaths in August last year, the UP government had formed a special task force (STF) which led to the arrests of Dr Kafeel Ahmed Khan, medical college principal Dr Rajiv Mishra, Dr Purnima Shukla, former Anaesthesia Department Head Dr Satish Kumar, ex-Chief Pharmacist Gajanan Jaiswal, Accounts departments clerks, Sudhir Pandey, Udai Sharma, Sanjay Tripathi and owner of Pushpa Sales Pvt Ltd Manish Bhandari in September last year.
56-year-old Kumar joined BRD Medical College as a student of MBBS. Later on, he joined the college as a teacher in anaesthesia department and was appointed the head of the department in the year 2013.
Kumar comes from the Dalit community and his family thinks that his Dalit identity might might have played in a role in his persecution. “Earlier we used to think that my father’s only fault was that he was not present on the day of the incident, but now we can connect the dots and understand the fact that it is also because of the identity,” Manjari Rain told this reporter in an earlier conversation.
Satish Kumar was also made maintenance officer in 2009, but his role had nothing to do with oxygen shortage. Moreover, as an anaesthetist, Kumar had no expertise and say in encephalitis and paediatrics wards, the same where massive deaths reported in August 2017.
In the police charge sheet, Kumar has been charged under sections 308, 120B, 466, 468, 469 of Indian Penal Code and section 7/13 of The Prevention of Corruption Act.
Commenting on the bail to Kumar, his daughter Manjari said, “We are so much happy right now, so we cannot tell even. My mother (Anita) has been crying since she heard that Papa has been granted bail.”
Anita, the wife of Satish Kumar, wrote to Indian Medical Association (IMA) on April 9 answering the allegations and charges on Satish Kumar. The letter states that when Kumar came to know about the shortage of oxygen on August 10, he immediately informed the principal of the college before leaving for Mumbai.
According to the family, Kumar has had intestinal surgery and he is also anaemic since long. His daughter said, “He was not getting the necessary treatment in the jail.”
Manjari and Pallavi, the two daughters of Kumar are married but have been living with their mother to look after the legal process along with taking care of their mother.