To the innocent children who lost their lives at the BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur, in August 2017, and the brave parents who have endured limitless grief and a grave betrayal
Contents
Cast of Characters
My Family
Adeel and Kashif: my brothers
Ahmar: my sister Farkhandas husband
Farkhanda or Farro and Zeenat: my sisters
Nuzhat Parveen: my mother
Samar: my sister Zeenats husband
Shabista: my wife
Zab and Zain: my children
Ab and Jasir: my nephews
Zara and Rid: my nieces
The Hospital
Balwant and Krishna: oxygen pipeline operators
Dr Satish Choubey: the senior resident who informed me about the oxygen crisis on the night of 10 August
Gajanand Jaiswal: the chief pharmacist in charge of the supply of jumbo cylinders
Dr Ram Kumar Jaiswal: the acting principal
Dr Ganesh Kumar: the new principal
Dr Satish Kumar: head of the Department of Anaesthesia, head of maintenance and nodal officer in charge of oxygen supply
Dr K. P. Kushwaha: the retired principal
Dr Rajiv Kumar Mishra: the principal
Dr Mahima Mittal: head of the Department of Paediatrics
Dr O. N. Pandey: finance officer/drawing and disbursing officer (DDO)
Sudhir Pandey: the senior-most clerk in the accounts department
Uday Pratap Sharma: a junior accountant
Dr Purnima Shukla: Dr Rajiv K. Mishras wife
Dr A. K. Srivastava: superintendent-in-chief (SIC)
Dr Ramashanker Shukla: chief medical superintendent (CMS)
Sanjay Tripathi: a senior accountant
The Government
Anita Bhatnagar Jain: the additional chief secretary of medical education in the Uttar Pradesh government
Ashutosh Tandon: the minister of medical education of UP
Himanshu Kumar: the enquiry officer and principal secretary to the UP governments Food Protection and Administration
Dr K. K. Gupta: the director general of medical education and training (DGME)
Rajiv Kumar: the chief secretary to the chief minister of UP
Rajeev Rautela: the district magistrate, Gorakhpur
Siddharth Nath Singh: the health minister of UP
Yogi Adityanath: the chief minister of UP
The Prison
Bala: the writer of Nehru barrack
Suresh Dhani: jail superintendent
Surya Pandey: the deputy jailor
D. Ram: a retired PWD employee under trial
Ashish Singh: the deputy jailor
Shailesh Singh: the writer of Millennium barrack
Shukla: the jailor
V. Singh: a retired soldier from Barabanki
Mantri-ji: a politician from Maharajganj in Gorakhpur Jail
Other Characters
Manish Bhandari: the owner and managing director of Pushpa Sales
Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti: former president of the AIIMS Resident Doctors Association, Delhi
Timeline of Events
2017 |
10 August: | Piped liquid medical oxygen runs out at the BRD Medical Colleges Nehru Hospital. |
11 August: | The Uttar Pradesh government posts on its official social media account that no deaths have occurred due to lack of oxygen at BRD. |
13 August: | Sixty-three infants and eighteen adults die over the course of fifty-four hours after the oxygen shortage at the hospital. |
22 August: | The BRD Medical College suspends me from my post at the paediatrics department. |
23 August: | The Department of Medical Education of UP files an FIR against me and eight others under IPC sections 409, 308, 120B, 420, the Prevention of Corruption Act, Section 8 of the IPC and Section 15 of the Indian Medical Council Act. |
28 August: | I file a plea for anticipatory bail in the Allahabad High Court. |
2 September: | The UP Special Task Force arrests and sends me to Gorakhpur Jail. |
2018 |
10 April: | The Indian Medical Association comes out in my support, calling me a victim of conspiracy. |
18 April: | I write a ten-page letter detailing the events that transpired on the night of 1011 August 2017 and ask for justice to be served in the Gorakhpur hospital tragedy case. |
25 April: | The high court releases me on bail after eight months in prison, after clearing me of the charges of medical negligence and corruption. |
19 May: | I visit the BRD Medical College and hand over a letter requesting the authorities to reinstate me. |
10 June: | My younger brother Kashif is shot three times in Gorakhpur by unidentified assailants. |
14 August: | An RTI response reveals that the hospital was facing a shortage of oxygen cylinders on the night of 1011 August 2017. The BRD administrations response states that around six cylinders were bought from other hospitals and I had arranged four oxygen cylinders on my own. |
22 September: | The UP police arrests me again and I am sent back to Gorakhpur Jail for allegedly creating a ruckus and forcibly treating patients at the Bahraich district hospital and criticizing the policies of the UP government. On the same day, my elder brother Adeel is arrested on charges of fraud and let go a month later. |
3 November: | I am released from prison. |
2019 |
7 March: | The Allahabad High Court orders the UP government to conclude their departmental enquiry against me within ninety days, acting on my writ petition to have my suspension revoked. |
15 April: | A probe panel led by Principal Secretary Himanshu Kumar submits their report, which absolves me of any charges of medical negligence, corruption and dereliction of duty, and acknowledges my efforts to control the crisis but finds me guilty of private practice until 8 August 2016. |
10 May: | A division bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Indira Banerjee, orders for the enquiry regarding my suspension to be concluded in a timely manner and further directs the UP government to pay the subsistence allowances due to me. |
31 July: | A second suspension order is passed against me for forcibly treating patients at the Bahraich district hospital and criticizing the policies of the UP government while being in government service. |
27 September: | An internal enquiry committee of the hospital absolves me of the charges of medical negligence, corruption and dereliction of duty. |
4 October: | The UP government orders a fresh departmental enquiry into my role in the deaths of infants on the intervening night of 1011 August 2017. |
12 December: | I deliver a speech against the controversial Citizenship Amendment on the campus of Aligarh Muslim University. |
2020 |
29 January: | The Uttar Pradesh STF arrests me in Mumbai, stating that my speech disrupted communal harmony and was likely to create a negative law-and-order situation. I am sent to Mathura Jail. |
10 February: | Aligarh district court orders my release. |
13 February: | The National Security Act is invoked against me for my anti-CAA speech at AMU. |
24 February: | The UP government orders a fresh enquiry, rejecting some points in the report submitted by the Himanshu Kumar-led committee. |