Delhi infant deaths: Within minutes of fire, staff made calls, but not to police

Investigation into the death of infants in a fire at the Baby Care New Born hospital in Vivek Vihar revealed that staffers at the hospital started making calls as soon as the fire started, but none to the police or fire services, as per CCTV footage analysed from the area, investigators said.

At the time of the fire, police suspect two ayurvedic doctors, three nurses and other staffers were at the hospital. Police said all of them tried to douse the fire, but left the building in 10-15 minutes of the fire without informing them. While nurses stayed and helped locals, doctors and other staffers left, police said.

“CCTV footage recovered from the spot shows two men, who are possibly doctors, leaving the building at the time of the fire. The doctors were seen calling someone else. They had 10-15 minutes to make a PCR call or fire call but they didn’t. The PCR call was made at 11.25pm by a businessman named Tanmay Sethi,” a senior police officer, requesting anonymity, said.

“All the 16 staffers have been called for questioning and to join the probe. The owner, Dr Naveen Khichi, and his associate Dr Akash Singh, were arrested. Singh was arrested because he was on duty at the time and fled the spot,” the police officer said.

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Revealing another major violation, police said 42-year-old Khichi kept premature newborns and babies with infection in beds spaced less than 91 centimetres apart, risking their lives and violating DGHS (Directorate General of Health Services) regulations.

Police said they have written to DGHS and other medical bodies to probe the matter. They said DGHS guidelines state that there must be a distance of 0.91m (from all sides) between two beds.

The senior police officer, citing the investigation report, said, “The hospital did not follow bed spacing rules laid down by the DGHS. Khichi knew this would risk lives but he still kept all the babies close to each other. He illegally expanded from five beds to 13 beds in Vivek Vihar.”

The officer said that Dr Khichi, during interrogation on Tuesday, admitted to multiple shortcomings at his three hospitals in Delhi-NCR. However, he blamed weak medical laws, saying most neonatal care centres in the national capital flouted norms.

A second senior police officer, requesting anonymity, said the probe revealed that Khichi was making an estimated annual profit of ₹1-2 crore from each branch, two of which were operational in Delhi and one in Faridabad.

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Further, the preliminary autopsy report of the newborns from GTB Hospital found that most of the babies died of suffocation and not fire injuries, the second officer said. “An inspection of the crime scene by a forensic team revealed that the fire only damaged the front section of the building. Files, beds and equipment which were kept in the back room were intact even after the fire,” the second officer said.

The investigation report said that the fire broke out on the second floor of the building, with CCTV footage from the area showing the fire started from the spot where a generator and oxygen cylinders were kept. “There are two things we are probing. Either, the fire started due to an electric fault in the generator and led to oxygen cylinder blasts or it was due to the electric wires, which were right outside the building and near the second floor,” the second officer said.

STAFFERS

Police said there were three doctors (all ayurvedic), six nurses, two attendants and three drivers, in all, at the centre. “We found that Khichi employed a qualified MBBS doctor from ESIC Hospital in Delhi as his on-call doctor. We will also call him for questioning,” a third police officer said, adding that Khichi paid ayurvedic doctors ₹30,000- ₹45,000 per month.

Deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) Surendra Chaudhary earlier said that a series of cylinder blasts killed the babies and made rescue tough, as there were 32 more cylinders on the premises.

The ayurvedic doctors were made “in-charges” of the hospital in Khichi’s absence. They were asked to call Khichi or the on-call doctor in case of emergencies, police said. The two attendants would sit at the reception area, and the three drivers doubled up as helpers, assisting nurses with administrative work.

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The police report said that one of the drivers “opens and closes oxygen cylinder without having any experience,” adding they would check if this was a “major” violation that endangered lives.

KHICHI’S BACKGROUND

Police said an inquiry into Khichi’s background found he comes from a family of traders, with his father and two brothers engaged in plastic and scrap trading in Rohtak of Haryana.

Khichi told police he initially joined Delhi University’s Sri Venkateswara College, but dropped out. “He took a year and got into Maulana Azad Medical College in 1999. After his MBBS, he took another drop year and later got into Lady Hardinge College in 2005-06 for his masters. He worked at Lady Hardinge as a senior resident doctor for three years. He was highly qualified but he never employed qualified doctors at his hospitals,” the first officer said.

Citing the interrogation report, the officer said: “The first building was his old family home in Paschim Puri, which he renovated and started a hospital with a friend in 2013. The hospital was shut on Sunday afternoon after the fire. It is among his five hospitals. He told us that he wanted to start a neonatal centre and open multiple branches across town.”

In 2016-17, police said Khichi started a hospital in B block of Vivek Vihar, but shut it in 2021 over administrative issues. In 2021, he bought the New Born Baby Care Hospital in C block Vivek Vihar for ₹2.7 crore. Police didn’t share details about his Gurugarm and Faridabad branches.

Police said Khichi’s wife, Dr Jagruti Rajaura, is a dentist. They suspect she was running the Paschim Puri facility and said they would call her for questioning.