NEW DELHI, July 26: Striking Safdarjung hospital employee Balwan, accused of tampering with the oxygen pipes to the paedeatric and intensive care unit wards of the hospital, was arrested last night. As reported in Express Newsline today, he along with five others had been mentioned in the FIR filed in the Sarojini Nagar police station last Tuesday.SHO Sarojini Nagar Harcharan Verma said: ``The accused was produced in court today and is presently lodged in jail. Balwan was arrested under charges of attempt to murder and destruction to public property under section 307 and 3 and 4 of the Indian Penal Code.''A few hours before the arrest Sarojini Nagar police had said that they had not arrested anyone as they needed ``more evidence that the pipeline was indeed sabotaged.'' However, the SHO now claims that he has found ``sufficient evidence in the case.''According to the report, on-duty technician Sehensarpal was the first to notice that the knob that regulates the oxygen was missing. However, the investigating officer in the case had reportedly not been able to trace Sehensarpal.Following the report in Express Newsline, the Sarojini Nagar police apparently traced Sehensarpal this morning: ``He was around but was trying to evade us. He must have been influenced by the Union people. We interrogated him this morning and we have gathered relevant evidence.''The SHO today ruled out ``withdrawal of the case by hospital authorities. How can they withdraw the case when we have evidence? In fact, we hope to arrest the others involved in the case soon.''A police officer at the Sarojini Nagar police station said that ``there were 25 new born babies in the ward where the oxygen supply was reportedly affected. It is a serious case and now that the case has become public, investigations are being carried out in earnest.''Five other co-workers involved in the alleged tampering of oxygen pipes are yet to be identified. The knob that regulates the oxygen supply which was reported missing has not been recovered as yet.The Sarojini Nagar police has not made any arrests in the other cases filed there. The telephone lines at Safdarjung hospital were also tampered with and a case has been registered but the accused Manish has not been arrested.The striking employees had also prevented the Mother Dairy van carrying bread and fruits for the patients from entering the hospital premises but no progress has been made in this case either.
