The health department in Uttar Pradesh has set up a probe after the owner of a private hospital in Agra was caught in a video saying that on the morning of April 26 he cut the oxygen supply of critical patients for five minutes “as an experiment to know who all are going to survive”. 22 of the patients, both in the Covid and non-Covid wards, may not have made it out alive.

“There was a shortage of oxygen. We were asking people to discharge their patients but no one was ready. So I decided to conduct an experiment. We cut the oxygen supply for five minutes on April 26, at 7 am. 22 patients started gasping for breath and their bodies began turning blue. So we came to know that they will not survive if there is no oxygen. Then, family members of the remaining 74 patients in the ICU wards were told to bring their own oxygen cylinders,” Arinjay Jain, owner of Paras hospital is heard saying in the video clip, which has now gone viral. When contacted, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Agra district, Dr RC Pandey, said, “We have noticed the video. A committee has been made to investigate the matter.”