Plea in HC to probe 2015 AIIMS fire incident

New Delhi: Jan 10 A plea was moved in the Delhi High Court seeking a court-monitored CBI probe into the fire incident at the AIIMS here in 2015 that resulted in destruction of sensitive files, many of which were claimed to be related to corruption.

The matter came for hearing before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar which listed it for hearing on April 9, when it will hear a pending PIL seeking a CBI inquiry into various cases of alleged irregularities and corruption in the AIIMS.

The fresh plea filed by NGO -- Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) -- alleged that the Delhi police has failed to trace the real culprits, despite an FIR registered in February 2015 in connection with the fire incident.

Advocate Rohit Singh and Govind Jee, appearing for the NGO, said that the fire incident happened after the high court issued notice in the main petition in which a whistle blower, Chief Vigilance Officer of AIIMS from 2012-14 Sanjiv Chaturvedi, is one of the parties supporting the claims of the NGO.

During the hearing of the main petition, the CBI had said it has not found any criminality on the part of officials or officers of AIIMS and hence no FIR was registered on the allegations of alleged irregularities.

The CBI's stand was similar to that of the Ministry of Health which had said that the allegations made against some of the senior officials "could not be established".

The advocates submitted that after the court had issued a notice in the main petition on February 2015, within three days on February 28, 2015, a "mysterious" fire broke out in the institute and thousands of confidential files were totally destroyed.

"The Delhi Police after inspection of the site found it to be an act of mischief and accordingly registered an FIR.

"However, even after the lapse of around three years it has not been able to solve the case, apparently because of political pressure of the influential accused who were beneficiary of destruction of files, in the said case," the fresh application alleged.

New Delhi, Jan 10 A plea was today moved in the Delhi High Court seeking a court-monitored CBI probe into the fire incident at the AIIMS here in 2015 that resulted in destruction of sensitive files, many of which were claimed to be related to corruption.

The matter came for hearing before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar which listed it for hearing on April 9, when it will hear a pending PIL seeking a CBI inquiry into various cases of alleged irregularities and corruption in the AIIMS.

The fresh plea filed by NGO -- Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) -- alleged that the Delhi police has failed to trace the real culprits, despite an FIR registered in February 2015 in connection with the fire incident.

Advocate Rohit Singh and Govind Jee, appearing for the NGO, said that the fire incident happened after the high court issued notice in the main petition in which a whistleblower, Chief Vigilance Officer of AIIMS from 2012-14 Sanjiv Chaturvedi, is one of the parties supporting the claims of the NGO.

During the hearing of the main petition, the CBI had said it has not found any criminality on the part of officials or officers of AIIMS and hence no FIR was registered on the allegations of alleged irregularities.

The CBI's stand was similar to that of the Ministry of Health which had said that the allegations made against some of the senior officials "could not be established".

The advocates submitted that after the court had issued notice in the main petition on February 2015, within three days on February 28, 2015, a "mysterious" fire broke out in the institute and thousands of confidential files were totally destroyed.

"The Delhi Police after inspection of the site found it to be an act of mischief and accordingly registered an FIR.

"However, even after the lapse of around three years it has not been able to solve the case, apparently because of political pressure of the influential accused who were beneficiary of destruction of files, in the said case," the fresh application alleged.