Doctors Mani Chhetri and Pronab Dasgupta's arrest in the AMRI Dhakuria case on Friday morning was greeted with cries of "unfair" from family, relatives and friends, many of whom spent the day waiting for a bail order that didn't come.
For 49 days since the basement fire at Annexe I of AMRI Dhakuria that took 91 lives, the police had looked at the 91-year-old Chhetri, the hospital's managing director, and Dasgupta, a veteran gynaecologist and president of the East Bengal Club, as no more than names on the board who had little say in decision-making.
On Friday, the list of charges slapped on them included culpable homicide not amounting to murder and attempt to bribe witnesses. Lawyers Bhaskar Sen and Tapen Roy Chowdhury said in their defence of Chhetri and Dasgupta, picked up simultaneously from their apartments at Bally High and Ballygunge Park Road around 8.30am, that neither had a role in how AMRI was run.
"Mani Chhetri is 91 years old. He is weak and has high blood pressure. He needs assistance at almost every step and surely cannot abscond. Also, he and his colleague do not have any important document in their possession that they can tamper with," Sen argued in the court of the chief judicial magistrate.
On the bribery charge, he said: "Nobody is supposed to know who the witnesses are until the police file the chargesheet."
The prosecution said it was ridiculous to suggest that two renowned doctors on the board of directors of a hospital could be unaware of decisions and day-to-day affairs.
"Chhetri regularly visits at least six nursing homes and had never missed any of the board meetings. Even if he and Dasgupta were not in charge of general administration, was it not their duty to ensure fire-safety arrangements considering the threat to so many patients?" demanded public prosecutor Shakti Bhattacharya.
A member of the Medical Council of India, B.K. Acharya, suddenly interjected to request the chief judicial magistrate's court to consider the reputation of the two doctors and grant them bail. Judge C.H. Karim curtly asked him not to interrupt the proceedings. "You do not have any locus standi (in the case), so I will not listen to you," he said.
Chhetri's son Milan, a medicine specialist attached to another private hospital, told Metro his father had been arrested without reason. "My father wasn't involved in the day-to-day affairs of the hospital and had no knowledge about the alleged irregularities (in fire safety). He was questioned once in our house about a month ago and we were shocked to find cops at our door this morning," he said.
Dasgupta's wife was unavailable for comment. "She is distraught," said a relative.
Earlier in the day, over 100 East Bengal supporters had gathered outside the court lock-up to demand Dasgupta's release. Many of them stayed there till 7.45pm, when he and Chhetri were taken to the central lock-up in Lalbazar in separate Tata Sumos.
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