Surat, Oct 13 (PTI) Police have arrested one more resident doctor in connection with the alleged harassment and ragging of a first-year postgraduate medical student, who died by suicide at Surat’s Government Medical College (GMC) in August this year, an official said on Tuesday.
With this, a total of three resident doctors have been arrested in connection with the case so far, he said.
“Accused doctor Anuj Maheshwari was arrested on Monday for his alleged involvement in ragging Harsh Pandya, who was found hanging in his hostel room on August 9,” Assistant Commissioner of Police Z R Desai said.
Two other accused — Dikshita Ghewaria and Hina Bhut — were arrested on Sunday, he said.
The police had registered a case under section 108 (abetment of suicide) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against four second-year PG students of the GMC, affiliated to New Civil Hospital, based on the report of anti-ragging committee, he added.
The evidence includes the anti-ragging committee’s report, technical evidence and statements, Desai said, adding that an investigation was underway.
The fourth accused in the case Nirali Vasave, a resident of Vyara, is yet to be arrested, Desai said.
The accused have also been booked under sections 127 (2) (wrongful confinement), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 54 of the BNS and relevant provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, an official of Khatodara police station said.
As per the complaint lodged by the institute, second-year resident doctors are not permitted to assign any tasks to first-year resident doctors.
However, despite this, the accused harassed 10 first-year residents of the microbiology department.
Desai said since Pandya took admission in March-April, the ragging continued for three to four months.
The accused doctors subjected Pandya and others to humiliation and verbal abuse and lodged false complaints with the faculty, alleging that they were not performing their duties, the complaint noted.
On August 5, the seniors allegedly sent WhatsApp messages to the first-year students summoning them to the microbiology department’s serology lab, where they detained them illegally for two hours, mentally harassed and humiliated them with crude remarks, the complaint stated.
A high-level committee formed to look into the matter had also issued show-cause notices to the microbiology department head Dr Sumaiya Mulla, and faculty members — Dr Sangeeta Rajde, Dr Yogita Mistry and Dr Latika Purohit.
The anti-ragging committee then recorded statements of senior resident doctors, faculty members, technicians and cleaners employed at the microbiology department based on complaints from nine first-year resident doctors and the deceased student’s father.
The committee noted that there was no evidence of physical abuse or that death resulted from such abuse. PTI KVM NP
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