A week after Ramesh Hospitals founder and managing director (MD) Pothineni Ramesh Babu filed an anticipatory bail and quash petition, the matter came up for hearing on Tuesday in the High Court.

Hearing a quash petition filed by Ramesh Hospitals MD Pothineni RameshBabu, the High Court passed interim orders directing the state government to stop all further action against Ramesh Babu. The High Court also questioned the state government why the district collector, joint collector and the DHMO were not included in the case.

The court observed that Swarna palace was turned into COVID-19 centre by Ramesh Hospital and the management was treating COVID-19 patients in the Swarna Palace hotel after taking all necessary permission.

The court asked why the state government has not made the district collector, joint collector and the DHMO responsible for granting necessary permission to the management of Ramesh Hospitals. “Will include the collector, joint collector and DMHO in the case. Why have you not made them responsible for the fire accident,” the court asked the statd government.

In the petition, Dr Ramesh Babu contended all precautionary measures were initiated as per the MoU signed by Ramesh Hospital and Swarna Palace.

The police had already include three senior executives, including Dr Kodali Rajagopal Rao, chief operating officer of Ramesh Hospital, Dr Kurapathi Sudershan, general manager, and Pallabothu Venkatesh of Ramesh Hospital.

Ramesh Babu had been absconding from Vijayawada fearing arrest in connection with the fire tragedy at Hotel Swarna Palace on August 9 in which 1O Covid-19 patients were left dead.

Actor Ram Potheneni, who is nephew of Ramesh Babu, stated in his tweet that Hotel Swarna Palace was initially listed as a quarantine centre by the government, and it was later converted into a COVID Care Centre by Ramesh Hospitals. Notices were also sent to the actor by the Vijayawada police in an arm-twsting tactic to muzzle the actor’s voice.