Tamil Nadu car explosion: CCTV footage shows 5 people carrying gunny bag from victim's house
Coimbatore (TN) (PTI): The Tamil Nadu police on Monday intensified its investigation into the car explosion incident in the city, even as CCTV footage showed a group of men carrying a gunny bag from the house of Jemisha Mubeen, who was killed in the blast.
State Director General of Police C Sylendra Babu had on Sunday said that "low-intensive" explosive material including potassium nitrate, used in making country bombs, were recovered from the house of Mubeen.
The CCTV footage near the house showed five people purportedly taking out a gunny bag from Mubeen's house around 11.25 pm on Saturday, police said.
The cylinder explosion in the car happened near Kottai Eswaran Temple in the busy and communally sensitive Ukkadam area around 4 am on Sunday, they said.
While one of the five could be Mubeen, investigation is on to identify the remaining members, police added.
Police are also questioning seven people in this connection, based on the contact they made with Mubeen. An auto-rickshaw driver from Coonoor in nearby Nilgiris district was brought here for interrogation, tracing his mobile phone signal at the place of explosion.
A resident of Ottupattarai in Coonoor, he was residing there for the last four months, police said.
Mubeen was charred to death when a gas cylinder in the car in which he was travelling exploded on Sunday. Nails, marbles and some other items were found in the vehicle, the DGP had earlier said.
Meanwhile, AIADMK interim general secretary and Tamil Nadu Leader of Opposition K Palaniswami called for an independent probe into the matter, to ascertain if the incident was an accident or a conspiracy.
Training his guns against Chief Minister M K Stalin, who holds the Home portfolio, Palaniswami asked what did the former have to say about the explosion.
"Whenever the DMK assumes power in Tamil Nadu, instances of bomb blasts become routine and recurring," he alleged in a statement and claimed the incident exposed the lack of proper functioning of the police and Intelligence department.
The police should probe the matter without any political pressure to ascertain if it was an accident or a conspiracy and whether there were any anti-social elements involved in it, he demanded.
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Jhansi fire: Nurse's heroic efforts helped save over dozen babies
Lucknow/Jhansi (UP), Nov 17: Nurse Megha James was on duty when the fire broke out at the Jhansi hospital and she threw herself headlong into the rescue efforts, playing a hero's role by saving several babies.
Even when her salwar got burned, she refused to give up and was able to evacuate 14-15 babies with others' help.
"I had gone to take a syringe to give an injection to a child. When I came back, I saw that the (oxygen) concentrator had caught fire. I called the ward boy, who came with the fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. But by then, the fire had spread," James said.
Ten babies perished in a fire that broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi Friday night.
Faced with an enormous blaze, James's mind worked with a frenetic speed, to the extent she cared little about burning herself.
"My chappal caught fire and I burned my foot. Then my salwar caught fire. I removed my salwar and discarded it. At that time, my mind was virtually not working," she told PTI Videos.
James just wore another salwar and went back to the rescue operation.
"There was a lot of smoke, and once the lights went out, we could not see anything. The entire staff brought out at least 14-15 children. There were 11 beds in the ward with 23-24 babies," she said.
Had the lights not gone out they could have saved more children, James said. "It all happened very suddenly. None of us had expected it."
Assistant Nursing Superintendent Nalini Sood praised James's valour and recounted bits from how the rescue operation was carried out.
"The hospital staff broke the glasses of the NICU ward to evacuate the babies. It was then Nurse Megha's salwar caught fire. Instead of caring for her safety, she stayed there to rescue the babies and handed them over to people outside," she said.
Sood said James is currently undergoing treatment at the same medical college. She said she did not know the extent of her burns.
"The rescued babies were shifted to a ward very close to the NICU ward… When I recall the scene, I feel like crying," she said.
Dr Anshul Jain, the head of the anaesthesiology department at the medical college, explained the standard rescue operation and claimed the hospital followed the protocol to the T.
"In the triage process during an ICU evacuation, the policy is to evacuate less-affected patients first. The rationale behind this approach is that patients requiring minimal support can be relocated quickly, enabling a larger number of evacuations to be completed in a shorter time.
"In contrast, patients on ventilators or requiring high oxygen support demand more time and resources for evacuation," he said.
"This principle was successfully implemented in Jhansi, playing a significant role in saving many lives," Jain said.
A newborn rescued from the fire died due to illness on Sunday, Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said.
