Gorakhpur hospital deaths: Supreme Court grants bail to oxygen supplier

The bench, also comprising justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, considered the submission of senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Bhandari, that the accused has been in jail for last seven months for an offence which entails maximum three years jail term. Rohatgi said that it was an admitted position that the children died of Japanese Encephalitis and not due to short supply of oxygen.

He also referred to the stand of the state government and added that the accused has been suffering due to media trial. Earlier, the apex court, on March 28, had issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government, which was represented by lawyer Aishwarya Bhati.

More than 60 children, mostly infants, had died at the government-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur within a week in August 2017. There were allegations that the deaths occurred due to disruption in oxygen supply over unpaid bills to the vendor.

The Allahabad High Court had on February 13 rejected the bail petition of Bhandari, saying, “the court is inclined to accept the submission that custodial interrogation of the accused may still be warranted and it would not be appropriate to grant him bail at this stage”.