Gurugram: A security guard filling in as a CT scan technician at Panipat Civil Hospital has been booked for allegedly sexually assaulting a 57-year-old woman inside the scan room, after she was taken in alone for a test late Sunday night, the police said.
The woman, who was suffering from a heart ailment and was brought to the hospital late in the 16 August evening, died Tuesday while later undergoing treatment at the government-run PGI hospital in Rohtak.
Doctors at the Panipat hospital had advised an X-ray and a CT scan after which the sexual assault had taken place inside the room. She was taken into the CT scan room alone by the accused, identified as Rakesh, while her family members waited outside, according to the police complaint.
No other health worker was present inside the room at that time, it said, adding that the accused also threatened her against telling anyone about the incident.
When she was finally brought out, she was in a semi-conscious state, and it was only after regaining her senses that she told her family what had happened. The family immediately alerted Dial 112 around 11.30 pm.
Devender Kumar, Station House Officer, City Police Station, Panipat, said an FIR was registered late that night under Sections 64(1) and 351(3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on the woman’s complaint.
Savita Arya, president of the Nari Tu Narayani Nari Utthan Samiti, an organisation that works on women’s issues, told The Print that she received a call from the victim’s family around 9.45 pm and alerted the police.
Arya said it was alarming that a male staffer had been allowed to shut the door and conduct the scan on a woman patient without any family member or female health worker present.
Later, she confirmed that the victim’s husband spoke to her in the morning and informed about the woman’s death. Arya demanded immediate arrest of the accused.
Dr Vijay Malik, Civil Surgeon, Panipat, said the accused was not a government employee but worked with Healthmap, a private firm that has been contracted under the public-private partnership model to run CT scan and ultrasound services at civil hospitals across Haryana.
“Healthmap management has informed me that both Rakesh, who was a security guard being allowed to double as a technician, and Sachin, the actual technician, have been removed from their jobs. They have assured that in future a woman staffer will remain present when a woman patient is undergoing a scan,” Dr Malik told The Print.
The Haryana government has outsourced investigations involving costly equipment such as CT scanners to private firms under the PPP model. Patients have to pay for investigations and procedures, although the charges are lower than those at private facilities outside the government system.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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