Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: Baba Raghav Das Medical College (BRDMC) of Gorakhpur has hit the headlines again after the principal’s office and the adjacent record room caught fire around 10 am on Monday.Even though no loss of life was reported, the fire destroyed important documents in the record room of the college, which was in the news last year in August when 63 children, including infants, died within a span of four days when the supply of oxygen was allegedly disrupted due to non-payment of dues to the vendor. The state government had, however, vehemently denied that shortage of oxygen had led to the deaths.

It took six fire tenders around an hour to douse the flames, which engulfed the record room. The medical college authorities were tight-lipped over the issue, with principal Dr Ganesh Kumar on leave. Gorakhpur District Magistrate Rajiv Rautela directed ADM City, Rajneesh Chandra, to find the reason for the fire.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a BRD Medical College employee said, “The fire destroyed a number of documents. Files related to the oxygen disruption case were also kept in the principal’s office. They might also have been destroyed.”

The police said it seemed that a short circuit might have caused the fire.Chief Fire Service Officer T K Singh said a panel had been formed to probe the reasons for the fire.A Samajwadi Party leader described the blaze as mysterious and sought a probe into why “only vital files were destroyed”. SP district chief Prahlad Yadav suspected that it was an act of sabotage to destroy vital documents related to provision of oxygen to the hospital.