Mumbai Medical Student Payal Tadvi Suicide Case: Dalit Organisations Seek Stringent Action Against Accused Doctors at BYL Nair Hospital
Days after 26-year-old Payal Tadvi committed suicide following alleged casteist discrimination by senior doctors at BYL Nair Hospital, Dalit groups have started protesting outside the hospital and sought stringent action against the accused.
Mumbai, May 28: Days after 26-year-old Payal Tadvi committed suicide following alleged casteist discrimination by senior doctors at BYL Nair Hospital, Dalit groups have started protesting outside the hospital and sought stringent action. Tadvi allegedly took this after casteist slurs were hurled at her in the state-run hospital.
Protesters from Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and other Dalit and tribal organisations joined Tadvi's mother Abida Tadvi and husband Dr Salman, who demanded the strictest action against the three seniors. These senior doctors allegedly tortured the medical student daughter during ragging and hurled casteist abuses at her. Facing Casteist Slurs by Seniors on WhatsApp Group, Jalna Doctor Commits Suicide
Expressing her anguish at the hospital authorities, Dr Salman said, "We want the government to intervene. The police are not taking any action. It is possible that Payal was murdered by the three women doctors."
Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad expressed his solidarity with the victims' family and said, as quoted by News 18, "We need to fight for justice for our younger sister." On the other side, protesting junior doctors alleged that thought the ragging takes place in the first year of the medical course, it continued for Payal in the second year which is a serious concern.
Taking cognisance of the incident, Maharashtra State Commission for Women issued a notice to the hospital authorities demanding a reply within eight days on the action taken to implement the anti-ragging law. In the meantime, three women doctors at the hospital accused of driving Tadvi to suicide have sought a "fair probe" in the case.
In their letter to Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD, the doctors - Ankita Khandelwal, Hema Ahuja and Bhakti Mehare - sought the college to conduct a fair investigation in the matter and "give justice" to them. They had said, "This is not the way to do an investigation through the police force and media pressure, without hearing our side." Earlier, MARD had suspended the three doctors.
According to Police FIR, the PG student committed suicide following her seniors threatened her, saying she wouldn't be allowed into operation theatres or allowed to perform deliveries. Along with this, she was mocked for hailing from the tribal community on WhatsApp groups. Kin also alleged that even doctors taunted her for belonging to a Scheduled Tribe.
Doctors named in the FIR have been booked under the Atrocities Act, the Anti-Ragging Act and the IT Act and Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 28, 2019 05:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).