Gorakhpur tragedy: UP STF makes third arrest

Gorakhpur, Sep 2: Amid deaths of children at the BRD Medical College hospital continuing to hog the limelight, the special task force(STF) of Uttar Pradesh today arrested the third accused Dr Kafeel Khan in connection with the last month's incident in which more than 60 children died due to shortage of oxygen supply. Dr Kafeel was among the nine people against whom the UP government had filed an FIR for negligence. Confirming the arrest in Lucknow, Additional director General of Police (Law and Order) Anand Kumar said that the STF arrested the suspended doctor, a former in-charge of the encephalitis department, when he was trying to flee out of Gorakhpur. A local court here had yesterday issued a non-bailable warrant against seven people, including Dr Kafeel, after their whereabouts were not found by the police. Early this week, the suspended principal of the BRD Medical college Rajiv Mishra and his wife Dr Purnima Shukla were arrested on August 29 from Kanpur. The couple are presently in jail under judicial custody. Though the UP government as well as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath refused to accept that the deaths took place due to shortage of oxygen supply in the ICU on August 9 and 10, but surprisingly all the arrests were made holding these people responsible for the tragedy. UNI