Meerut: Saviour of many loses battle of life

Kishore Javed, the courageous teenager who saved many children from the inferno at the Victoria Park in Meerut, succumbed to injuries at Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi on Thursday.

The 18-year-old, who was shifted from Jaiswal Rai Hospital in Meerut with 70 per cent burns on Wednesday night, died around 0530 hrs this morning, according to Aneeda Begum, mother of Javed.

Javed's family claimed that he died due to the negligence of the doctors at Safdarjung hospital, as he struggled throughout Wednesday night.

Furious at the 'indifferent' attitude of the hospital authorities, friends of Javed ransacked the Intensive Care Unit. The family also claimed that the police had detained the four boys - Arif, Mahfuz, Deepak and Ikram -

inside the burns ward. No official from the hospital was available for comment.

The body of the teenager will be handed over to the family after a postmortem soon, police said.

Javed was working as a helper in one of the stalls at the electronic fair at the Victoria Park, where the devastating fire claimed as many as 60 lives. He was initially admitted to the Jaiswal Rai Hospital, which referred him to the Safdarjung hospital in New Delhi.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal had visited Javed at the Jaiswal Rai Hospital ICU and praised his heroic deed.