Bhubaneswar, June 13 (IANS) The toll in the tragic triple train accident in Odisha's Balasore on Tuesday rose to 289 with the death of a man from Bihar while undergoing treatment, an official said.
Bijay Paswan, from Bihar's Motihari district, succumbed to his injuries at SCB Medical College and Hospital.
Paswan, along with six others, had boarded the Coromandel Express on June 2 from Howrah to visit Kerala's Palakkad. While one of them had died at the accident spot, another died today.
He was initially admitted to the Balasore district headquarter hospital and then shifted to the central ICU of SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack with cervical spine injury and quadriplegia.
"The health condition of Paswan was stable when he was admitted at the hospital. However, his condition gradually deteriorated and yesterday, when his oxygen level started falling, we put him on a ventilator. Medicines given to raise his blood pressure too. Despite all efforts, he could not survive and passed away due to cardiac arrest," Professor Sudhanshu Sekhar Mishra, superintendent, SCB Medical College, said.
He also informed that the condition of another three people under treatment at the hospital is critical.
Kidneys of two other persons are not functioning properly while the brain of another was operated upon and his lungs also not functioning properly, said Mishra.
The official said in the first operation they found that the drugs were being supplied inside Delhi through a courier service. The police said that this information was developed and an MBA student was apprehended from Wazirabad. He told the police that a BBA pass student supplied him the drugs and he was also caught.
He said many apprehensions are being expressed that prominent leaders and big businessmen are involved in the crime. "All these doubts will be cleared if the CBI investigates." AAP national convenor Kejriwal was in his birthplace Hisar to launch party's nationwide campaign -- Make India No 1.
In a letter to Union Textile Minister Piyush Goyal, the Chief Minister has expressed the desire for setting up this ambitious project on the sacred land of Fatehgarh Sahib. He envisioned that once commissioned this project will emerge Punjab as a 'textile hub' of the country.
On April 18, the Supreme Court had cancelled the bail granted to Mishra and directed him to surrender within a week. A bench, headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana (retired now) and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, asked the Allahabad High Court to examine afresh whether Mishra should be granted bail or not.
The Afghan nationals have been identified as Kabul resident Mustafa and Kandahar resident Rahimulla Rahim. Both the accused have refugee visas. The official said that they were caught on September 3 from Delhi's Kalindi Kunj area following a tip off that they were coming to Delhi by car. Following their interrogation the police conducted a raid at Noida and recovered more heroin and narcotics.
Judge B.K. Komala has given clear directions that accused seer should not be taken to anywhere during police custody, ruling out any possibility of shifting him to Bengaluru hospital. The police had sought 5 days' custody of the accused seer for investigation.
