The Andhra Pradesh state high court on Friday granted bail to the three executives of Ramesh Hospitals who were arrested in connection with the fire mishap in Swarna Palace Hotel in Vijayawada on August 9 that claimed 10 lives.
The three executives were – Dr Kodali Rajagopal Rao, chief operating officer of Ramesh Hospital, Dr Kurapati Sudershan, general manager and Pallabothu Venkatesh, coordinating manager of the hospital at Swarna Palace Hotel which was engaged by Ramesh Hospital as the Covid Care Centre.
The three executives were arrested on the same day of the accident by the Governorpet police who had registered a criminal case, following a complaint from Vijayawada Central tehsildar (block revenue official) Jayasri.
The case was filed against the managements of Ramesh Hospital and Swarna Palace Hotel under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 308 read with 34 (acts amounting to culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
In the last week of August, the three of them had moved bail petition before the eighth district additional court but it had refused to grant bail to them as they were directly accused in the hotel fire accident.
Magistrate Anjaneya Murthy said bail cannot be granted since the case was still under investigation.
As a result, the three accused filed the bail petition in the high court, which had granted bail to them on Friday.
Earlier, the high court had also stayed the arrest of Dr Ramesh Pothineni, the owner of Ramesh Hospital and Seetharama Mohana Rao, chairman of the hospital. Both Ramesh and Rammohan Rao had been absconding since the fire mishap.
The high court asked the government advocate whether the authorities had made district collector, Vijayawada sub-collector and district medical and health officer responsible for the tragedy as they had granted the permissions for running of the Covid care centre in the hotel.
Following this, the Jagan government moved the Supreme Court on Thursday challenging the high court order stalling further action in the Ramesh Hospitals case.
