Surat, Oct 11 (PTI) Over two months after a first-year PG medical student died by suicide at Surat’s Government Medical College, police on Sunday arrested two senior resident doctors for allegedly subjecting him and nine others to systemic harassment and ragging.
The accused doctors, Dikshita Ghewaria and Hina Bhut, were picked up after they evaded arrest following the death of Harsh Pandya, who was found hanging in his hostel room on August 9, Assistant Commissioner of Police Z R Desai said.
The police had registered a first information report (FIR) against four second-year PG students of the GMC affiliated to New Civil Hospital after Pandya was found hanging on the morning of August 9.
“Two of the four resident doctors were arrested on Sunday. According to the anti-ragging committee, the accused were involved in ragging Pandya, after which he died by suicide,” Desai said.
The accused had been hiding at the houses of their relatives and friends and filing quashing petitions to evade arrest, he said, adding that two other accused, Nirali Vasave and Anuj Maheshwari, are yet to be arrested.
The accused have been booked under sections 127 (2) (wrongful confinement), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 54 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (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 PD ARU
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