SUM hospital inferno: Death toll rises to 27

Bhubaneshwar [India], Oct. 24 (ANI): With another person succumbing to injuries, the death toll in the deadly SUM hospital inferno in Odisha's capital rose to 27 on Monday. Nineteen patients died last Monday when the fire broke out in the hospital. As many as 106 patients were shifted to different hospitals following the major fire that started in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the dialysis ward at SUM Hospital on Monday evening. Earlier, Odisha Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak resigned from his position following the uproar over the fire. Confirming the development, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, "Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak has resigned on moral grounds and I have accepted his resignation and sent it to the Governor." The Chief Judicial Magistrate has sent hospital founder Manoj Nayak in two-day police remand. Nayak was arrested on Thursday by police after he surrendered before it and was produced before the Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate Court in Bhubaneswar last evening. Rejecting the bail plea of Nayak, the court granted the city police to take Nayak on a two-day remand. He was booked under section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible mat­ter) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for poor fire safety measures at his hospital. (ANI)