United in tragedy: Trial yet to begin, victims’ kin form forum

A year after the horrifying fire at AMRI Hospital at Dhakuria took place in Kolkata, claiming 93 lives, the trauma is still vivid in the minds of the victim-families, many of whom are struggling to eck out an existence.

A year after the disaster struck, the trial of the case is yet to begin, despite the investigators having submitted the chargesheet. Lawyer for the state government Shakti Bhattacharya said, "Till now the trial has not started as the lawyer of the opponent party asked us to submit all the documents for inspection. But now they are not willing to inspect the documents and they have decided to move to higher forum. However, it will be decided at the next hearing — on December 13 — whether they can move to the higher forum or not."

Lawyer for the accused, Ashok Mukherjee, however, declined to comment anything and said that he can comment once the trial begins.

The families of the 93 victims have come together to form a human health rights forum. They have decided against accepting of the compensation offered by AMRI authorities. They have also decided to hold a rally on Sunday against AMRI authorities. The rally would start at Gariahat and go till Dhakuria, where the hospital stood.

While the case is mired in legal tangles, The Sunday Express talked to some of the victim families and found the extreme hardship many of them have been subjected to.

For Jaya Ghosh, a resident of Bhagajatin in Kolkata - her husband was the sole bread-winner for the family. Swapan Krishna Ghosh was admitted on December 5 last year with cerebral haemorrhage and Jaya had taken took a gold loan of Rs 1.62 lakh from a private company for his treatment. Looking back, she recounted everything was in vain. Her husband was operated upon on Decembe 8, 2011, and Ghosh was recovering well.

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