Rohtak: The 19-year-old social media influencer documented every moment of her path to achieving her dream of studying medicine at the Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak. Within a year, that dream became a nightmare—because a man, a fellow medical student, was obsessed with her.
On 16 August, she was abducted from outside the college library at 11pm by Dr Maninder Kaushik, an MD student of anatomy. For the next 13 hours, he allegedly drove her toward Punjab, hundreds of kilometres from Rohtak. He stopped at multiple places on the way, according to the FIR, and repeatedly hit, kicked and tortured her. When he dropped her off at the campus the next afternoon, he threatened to kill her brother if she opened her mouth. The student filed a police complaint.
Then, covered in cuts and bruises, she took to YouTube and Instagram and posted a video. In the aftermath of the Kolkata rape case, where a postgraduate trainee doctor was raped and murdered in the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College on 9 August, the shocking aggression behind this incident has renewed calls for women’s safety in the medical field.
Students, doctors, and nurses are demanding stricter disciplinary action against any degree of violence.
A day before she was abducted, the student and her brother had uploaded a YouTube short of them at a protest demanding justice for the rape at RG Kar Hospital.
From bullying and ragging to being violent toward women, the 19-year-old student’s case is yet another reminder of how several unequal power structures exist within our institutions. The student claimed that Kaushik, 33, had been stalking and harassing her for over seven months, and that she’d only met him that night on the pretext of him handing over her admit card for an upcoming exam—which he was deliberately keeping from her, causing her distress. What followed was a night of torture.
“We would have taken the strictest action if she’d sent us even one message over the last eight months,” said Dr Sanjay Tiwari, dean and principal of the Dental School, where the student was enrolled.
But Kaushik already had a history of run-ins with faculty and harassing women. He was a ‘problem student’, who had received multiple disciplinary warnings from PGIMS Rohtak.
“Action should have been taken against this student before,” said Renu Bhatia, chairperson of the Haryana State Commission for Women. “IC committees need to be strengthened too. This boy was earlier warned for harassing a woman on campus—so more vigilance and stringency is important.”
His uncle had been contacted and asked to help discipline him, according to the administration. There was even an ongoing enquiry against him for misbehaving with a faculty member. In fact, the disciplinary board had met regarding Kaushik a week before he abducted the 19-year-old student.
“We take this very seriously. When we found out, everyone—from the Director, Vice Chancellor, to the police—ensured an FIR was filed at 3am. And the next morning he was expelled.”
The student said that she wants to leave PGIMS Rohtak—a decision that the university understands and wants to guide her through. Her abuser, Kaushik, was expelled on 18 August and is currently in police custody for voluntarily causing hurt, kidnapping, and criminal intimidation.
“The institute took the action that they felt was right, according to the circumstances,” said Dr Prajwal Ravindra, president of the Residents Doctors Association.
The student painstakingly documented every stepping stone that paved her way to dental school. She even live-streamed herself studying for 12 hours straight. And now, she wants to quit that dream altogether.
“The camera is not focused on the cruelty of this man and his behaviour. Instead, it’s focused on the character of the girl,” said Jagmati Sangwan, activist and General Secretary of All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA). “AIDWA finds this highly concerning. On one hand, there’s an ongoing agitation on PGI Rohtak’s campus over the safety of doctors, at the same time a doctor is assaulting a student. Why hasn’t the local Resident Welfare Association of Doctors come out with a solidarity statement for their own colleague?”
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A ‘problem’ student
The student, terrified and in tears, was bundled into the Director’s office at PGIMS Rohtak where Bhatia spoke to her and her family. Fifteen minutes later, the family piled into their car—she had documented them purchasing their first car a year ago—and drove off.
“I’ve said what I needed to say,” she told local reporters. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” The years of preparation, the elation when she cleared one of India’s toughest entrance examinations, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, and her entry into med school have been erased.
On 20 August, the student exited the college resolutely, her brother by her side. He’s also a second-year medical student. The YouTube video announcing his NEET results has over 20 lakh views.
The two of them have a YouTube channel with almost 2 lakh subscribers, in which they talk about their lives as medical students. But their social media presence has added a layer of salaciousness to the incident, according to students and faculty at PGIMS Rohtak.
“I have no idea who she is—but I’ve heard she was some sort of influencer. [Kaushik] of course was known as a troublemaker,” said a first-year MBBS student at PGI Rohtak who requested not to be named. “It doesn’t matter who she was, or what their relationship was, no one deserves to be hurt like that.”
The incident seems to be largely seen as an interpersonal conflict on campus. Students and faculty members have distanced this incident from the Kolkata rape case, because to them, the rape and the abduction have completely different contexts.
When Kaushik began to take an interest in her, she assumed that it was normal for senior medical students to offer help and guidance to freshers like her.
However, he quickly turned abusive—every time she’d try to tell him she didn’t want any relationship with him, he would be violent, according to the student’s video.
Some of the threats he allegedly made included hurting her brother and her parents, and she told Bhatia and the university administration that he would often brandish a knife while making such statements.
That particular night, the student—who is a day scholar—was on campus because she’d taken a hostel room to prepare better for her exams. She wanted to improve her grades and was therefore spending more time on campus. Kaushik was holding her admit card for an examination scheduled for 20 August hostage and told her to meet him on the night of 16 August if she wanted it. When she went to meet him, he forced her into the car and proceeded to physically and emotionally torment her, according to the FIR.
One of the things he allegedly did was slice and jab her palm with a knife, counting the cuts while doing it.
The student claimed that Kaushik has been mentally and emotionally abusing two other women on campus, which Bhatia and the administration have taken note of.
“I feel bad that this mentality exists in institutions where such qualified people are working and studying,” said Bhatia. “That’s why we train so many girls about POSH, POCSO, cybercrime—so that they are alert in every segment of life, and to be very careful of men who are around them.”
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Quick university action
The short that the student and her brother uploaded on YouTube has nearly 9 lakh views. In it, the student tearfully shows her bruises. A man’s voice tells her not to cry. Then it cuts to her addressing the camera through tears, taking her audience through the ordeal of that night.
The YouTube comments are filled with messages of support.
And senior faculty and board members at PGIMS Rohtak are anxious to ensure that such a thing never happens again.
“When this physical assault came to our notice, we called an emergency meeting of the disciplinary board and immediately expelled him. This is a medical college where women work at all times of the day and night—of course we take safety seriously,” said PGIMS Rohtak Director Dr SS Lohchab.
The university has an active internal complaints committee and has taken action over such cases—a faculty member was even fired a few years ago for harassing a postgraduate student. They have promised to look into Bhatia’s request to install more cameras across campus. They also plan to do more student outreach to tackle any such instances of bullying and harassment.
“I spoke to the disheartened student and was sad—while studying, seniors tend to become our idols. But if our seniors try to suppress us, traumatise us over small matters—nothing can be more shameful than that,” said Bhatia.
AIDWA has also spoken to the student and her family, and offered counselling services if they require.
“We appreciate that they have chosen to speak up instead of staying silent,” said Sangwan. “We are wholeheartedly with them—we want justice to be done and severe punishment for the culprit.”
The student has said she wants to leave PGIMS Rohtak and go back to the drawing board. In April 2024, she also posted a YouTube video in which she’s considering dropping out of dental school and taking the NEET again.
One of the most popular videos on her channel—bordering on 10 lakh views—follows her on the day of the NEET exam. Her brother asks if she’s nervous or anxious if her stomach is aching. “No,” she says, confidently.
“She doesn’t show it, but I know she’s been worried,” says her mother, while waiting with her brother for her to finish the exam. “She’s going to come out dancing now that it’s done.”
In April, the student uploaded a viral reel on Instagram. “Life taught us 26 alphabets. But my heart got stuck on two: DR,” it reads.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)