HC orders probe report on United Hospital fire by Jun 14

The High Court has ordered the authorities to submit probe reports by Jun 14 on a fire that left five people dead at United Hospital’s COVID-19 unit.

The authorities of the hospital, RAJUK, Fire Service and Civil Defence and the inspector general of police have been ordered to submit separate reports by the same deadline.

Justice M Enayetur Rahim passed the order virtually after hearing a writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyers Redwan Ahmed Ranjib and Hamidul Misbah on Tuesday.

Lawyer Muntasir Uddin Ahmed represented the petitioners in the court while Deputy Attorney General Amit Talukder stood for the state.

The first writ petition was filed over the deadly fire by Supreme Court lawyers Barrister Niaz Muhammad Mahboob and Shahida Parvin Shila on May 30.

The petition sought cancellation of the licence of United Hospital, exemplary compensation for the families of the dead and a committee to investigate the incident under the supervision of the health ministry.

Additionally, a directive for exemplary compensation for the families of the dead has been demanded in the second petition filed by lawyers Redwan Ahmed and Hamidul Misbah.

On May 29, five people died in the fire that broke out in the hospital’s coronavirus isolation unit.

The police later said that three of the patients had tested positive for the coronavirus and the two others negative.

They were identified as Md Mahbub, 50, Md Monir Hossain, 75, Vernon Anthony Paul, 74, Khodaja Begum, 70, and Riaz Ul Alam, 45.

The next day, the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence formed a four-member panel to investigate the incident.

Debashish Vardhan, deputy director of the Fire Service, led the team. The other members of the committee were Babul Chakraborty, Niaz Ahmed and Md Abul Kalam Azad.