At least seven children died of encephalitis within 24 hours at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district, local reports said on Tuesday. On August 28, a total of 25 children died in different wards of the hospital, oh whom seven had had encephalitis.

Between August 26 and 28, 61 children died at the hospital. This comes soon after 63 children had died at the same hospital allegedly because of lack of oxygen supply. These 63 had died between August 7 and August 11. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had claimed that the children had died of encephalitis, but Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh had denied this.

Former principal of BRD Medical College and Hospital Dr Rajiv Mishra and his wife Dr Purnima Shukla were arrested in Kanpur on Tuesday. The couple had been named in the First Information Report filed by the Uttar Pradesh government based on an inquiry report prepared by a panel headed by UP Chief Secretary Rajeev Kumar.