The seven directors of tragedy-hit AMRI Hospital was on Saturday sent to police custody till December 20. The directors, Radhe Shyam Goenka, Prashant Goenka, Manish Goenka, Shrawan Kumar Todi, Ravi Todi, Dayanand Aggarwal and Radhe Ahyam Aggarwal surrendered at the police station on Friday evening. They were later arrested for negligence and culpable homocide.
Civic authorities have sealed two blocks of the hospital.
It was a collective chorus of anger and shock in Kolkata as intellectuals, celebrities and commoners demanded exemplary punishment for culprits and a mechanism to keep a tab on the working of private hospitals on Saturday, a day after India saw its worst hospital fire tragedy.
As many as 90 patients and staffers died a horrible death in Kolkata's well-known Advanced Medicare Research Institute (AMRI) Hospital when a blaze in the basement engulfed its annexe building early on Friday with noxious smoke, trapping helpless patients while doctors and others fled to safety.
It was a sorry saga of ignorance in basic firefighting norms, leading to the second major fire in Kolkata in 20 months after the March 23, 2010 blaze at the British-era Stephen Court in the heart of the bustling Park Street claimed 43 lives.