Gurugram: A retired medical officer, re-employed as a consultant physician at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash District Civil Hospital in Haryana’s Kurukshetra, stands accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in his OPD room Friday, and has been absconding since.
The accused has been identified as Dr Shailendra Kumar Shailly and retired as Principal Medical Officer from the hospital. He has been booked under Sections 6 and 10 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, at the Kurukshetra University police station following a complaint from the girl’s father.
On Sunday, the Director General of Health Services, Haryana, issued a formal order terminating Shailly’s consultancy services with “immediate effect”, citing the gravity of the FIR registered against him.
The order, seen by ThePrint, is signed by Dr Sumita Mishra, Additional Chief Secretary, Haryana, with copies dispatched to the Civil Surgeon, Kurukshetra, Principal Medical Officer of the district civil hospital, health minister’s office and the Chief Minister’s Office, among others.
The girl, who lost her mother about a year ago, had first visited the hospital with her father on 25 May. On Friday, they visited again, with the father running a fever and the girl suffering from stomach pain and urinary trouble. Dr Shailly admitted the father to the male ward and the girl to the female ward.
Dr Upendra, the emergency duty doctor who later treated the girl, told ThePrint that Shailly then took the girl to his OPD room, ostensibly for an examination.
According to police officials, the father’s complaint states that on the pretext of a check-up, Shailly made the girl lie on the examination bed, pressed her chest, and then assaulted her sexually, first digitally, and then multiple times. The assault triggered pain and bleeding, following which the doctor admitted the girl back to the female ward and disappeared from the hospital.
Around 8.30 pm that night, the girl’s condition worsened due to heavy bleeding and she was shifted from the female ward to the emergency department.
It was there that she disclosed to senior doctors what had happened in the OPD with Shailly. A gynaecologist was called in, and her examination confirmed multiple instances of sexual assault, a finding that she recorded in writing.
When the father came to visit his daughter in the ward, he found her distressed and withdrawn. On persistent questioning, she broke down and told him what had happened.
A day after the incident, Shailly took leave from the hospital and has been untraceable.
The Haryana State Commission for Women has taken suo motu cognisance of the incident.
In a letter addressed Monday to the Additional Chief Secretary, Health & Family Welfare Department, seen by ThePrint, the commission described the allegations as “extremely serious and disturbing”, noting that the incident, if established, constitutes a grave violation of the rights, dignity, bodily integrity and safety of a minor girl and reflects gross abuse of a position of trust.
The commission has asked for immediate action in the case under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, POCSO Act, Haryana Civil Service Rules-2016 and other applicable laws, and initiate disciplinary proceedings against the accused. The department has been asked to furnish an action taken report to the commission as soon as possible.
This report has been updated
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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