Manoj Nayak, promoter of SUM Hospital, where fire tragedy claimed 21 lives, surrendered before the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack police hours after look-out circular was issued against him and his wife on wee hours of Thursday.
Mr. Nayak reached Khandagiri Police Station here at 3.30 am on Thursday and surrendered himself. Subsequently, police made a formal arrest and started interrogation.
“Within less than 48 hours of registration of FIR, we have been able to arrest five persons in connection with the fire tragedy. When it was felt that Mr. Nayak was evading arrest and not cooperating with investigation, look-out circular was issued against him,” said Y. B. Khurania, Commissioner of Police for Bhubaneswar-Cuttack, addressing a press conference here on Thursday.
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“We had carried out raids at his residence and office premises on Wednesday night. Police seized many important documents. The series of actions forced him to surrender before police,” said Mr. Khurania.
In the evening, Mr. Nayak, who is founder and head of Shiksha O’ Anusandhan Charitable Trust, was produced before a local court which remanded him to police custody.
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The trust runs SOA University which boasts of schools of diverse disciplines such as engineering, medicine, dental sciences, pharmaceutical sciences, biotechnology, management, hotel management, nursing and law. He started his career as an engineering college teacher and subsequently kept setting up a number of institutes.
“As far as his wife is concerned, Saswati Das, who is also a trustee, against whom look-out circular was also issued, has not contacted us. During course of interrogation, we will ascertain her role in management of the hospital,” he said,
Commissioner of Police said, “we are currently studying the organisational structure of the SUM Hospital. All trustees will be summoned, asked to join investigation and clarify their role and responsibility in hospital management. Their statements will be recorded.”
The case was registered under section 304, 308, 285 and 34 IPC and if required, more sections would be added up. K. B. Singh, Director General of Police, had said, “investigators would try to know as to why he did not implement safety instructions and his source of financing.”
Black money
It needs to be mentioned that Special Investigation Team probing black money directed the Enforcement Directorate to look into the trust’s financial transactions over the years.
Police swung into action a few hours after, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had assured that stringent action would be taken against the guilty. Even Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J. P. Nadda, who found serious lapses in fire safety measures in city-based SUM Hospital, had said culprits should not go scot-free.