Delhi hospital fire: Families yet to identify babies

Allah ko pyaari ho gayi meri beti, said Ansaar, whose 11-day-old daughter was among the seven newborns killed in a blaze at a childcare hospital in New Delhi.

The fire broke out at the Baby Care New Born Hospital in Vivek Vihar area around 11:30 pm on Saturday and spread to two adjacent buildings. The Delhi Fire Services (DFS) had to deploy 16 fire tenders to douse the flames in three buildings.

With postmortem pending, authorities are yet to hand over Ansaar his baby's body. The other six families are also waiting.

"I saw my baby yesterday. She had a fever and was admitted to the hospital two days ago. This morning I was told about the fire," said the mother of 17-day-old Ruhi, who was killed in the fire.

The grieving mother recalled that when she admitted Ruhi to the hospital she was wearing a Najar ki mala to wade off evil spirits. "They (hospital staff) removed that and the necklace. Ruhi was in a diaper," she said.

Ansaar's daughter was born at another hospital on May 15. "She developed some health issues and was admitted to the hospital (Baby Care New Born Hospital) 10 days ago," he said.

"Allah ko pyaari ho gayi meri beti," he said and added that he learnt about the incident from his friends. "When I reached, I came to know that my daughter had died," Ansaar said.

For Masialam, a labourer, tragedy struck him again after five years.

"I lost my son five years ago. On Saturday, my newborn son died. What kind of facilities do they have?" he asked.

Many parents sold their jewellery or loaned money to pay for their children's treatment at the hospital, Masialam, the father of a three-year-old girl, said.

He said his son was born at another hospital and was admitted to Baby Care New Born Hospital after he developed an infection.

Parvinder Kumar, a relative of another victim, said, "We have not informed her mother yet."

She was just six days old and "we have lost her", he said and added that this was the first child of his relative Pawan Kumar.

"The girl was born around six days ago at a hospital in Ghaziabad and was admitted to the care centre for breathing issues. She was showing some improvement. We got a call around 9 am and were informed about the incident," Parvinder Kumar said.

The hospital is to be blamed and strict action should be taken against its owner, he said. The Kumars are farmers and belong to the Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat district.

Hritik Chaudhary, whose newborn son also died in the fire, said that every single official who is visiting the hospital is tight-lipped about the incident.

They did not answer questions on if the hospital was legal or whether it had an NOC from the fire department, he said.

Chaudhary's cousin, Robin, said nobody informed them about the incident and they came to the spot after watching the news.

The confusion and lack of information left many families in despair when they reached the hospital.

After the incident, District Magistrate (DM), Shahdara, Ritisha Gupta also reached the GTB Hospital. Many families stood outside and raised slogans, Humein Insaaf Chahiye (we want justice).

Police have arrested Dr Naveen Kichi, the owner of Baby Care New Born Hospital. He had been on the run since the fire outbreak.

Kichi has been booked under sections 336 (act endangering life of personal safety of others) and 304A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code.

The neonatal hospital was operating despite the expiry of its license. It also did not have qualified doctors and had no clearance from the fire department, police said on Sunday.