United Hospital fire: HC orders to compensate victim families

The High Court today directed the United Hospital authorities to provide compensation through amicable settlement to families of the victims who were killed in a fire at its isolation unit on May 27.

The court said it will pass an order on July 13 if the hospital authorities and family members of the victims fail to reach a settlement over compensation.

The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim came up with the directive after hearing virtually three separate writ petitions filed on behalf of the victim families, seeking compensation from the hospital authorities.

Advocate Niaz Mohammad Mahboob who moved one of the writ petitions, told The Daily Star that the victim families will now apply to the United Hospital authorities for compensation in line with the HC directive.

Then, a settlement will take place between the victim families and the hospital authorities over the compensation, he added.

The petition was filed as a public interest litigation, seeking HC directives on the authorities concerned to give Tk 5 crore to each victim family and to take necessary action against the persons responsible for the incident.

The lawyer added that the HC today did not pass any order over the probe reports on the incident of deadly fire at the isolation unit of the hospital as it is evident that there was negligence on part of the hospital in preventing the fire and deaths of the patients.

Following an HC order, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), Fire Service and Civil Defence, Dhaka Metropolitan Police, and United Hospital authorities submitted separate probe reports to the court through attorney general's office on June 11.