The third accused doctor Bhakti Mehare was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the death of Dr Payal Tadvi, ANI reported.
The two other accused — Hema Ahuja and Ankita Khandelwal — had been arrested on Tuesday. The three women are accused of abetting the suicide of Tadvi, a junior female colleague at BYL Nair Hospital in Mumbai, by tormenting her with casteist slurs.
All three moved an anticipatory bail application before the sessions court in Mumbai on Tuesday which is likely to come up for hearing on Wednesday.
In their joint plea, they say, “If the deceased was acting in a manner, which was not proper as a student and as a trainee, she was expected to be pulled up. (If) she found same to be too stressful, she could have left the job.”
The three have been booked under relevant provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Anti-Ragging Act, the IT Act and Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.
Tadvi was found hanging in her hostel room on 22 May, following which the 26-year-old’s family alleged that the senior doctors tortured her by ragging and hurling casteist abuses as she belonged to a Scheduled Tribe.
Tadvi’s parents on Tuesday protested at the state-run hospital where she worked. Other protesters, including the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, and other Dalit and tribal organisations, joined Tadvi’s mother Abedam and husband Salman, demanding stringent action against the three seniors.
Anti-ragging committee report
The BYL Nair Hospital’s anti-ragging committee submitted its report to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences on Tuesday.
According to Mumbai Mirror, the report described the hospital’s internal anti-ragging mechanism as ineffective and also criticised head of Tadvi’s department for not acting on her complaint.
“We have submitted our sealed report to the MUHS,” said Ramesh Bharmal, Dean, Nair Hospital, who did not reveal any details of the report, saying it was confidential.
“We are cooperating with the police in their investigation and providing whatever help they want,” Bharmal told PTI.
Tadvi’s family and husband on her harassment
Tadvi’s mother Abeda asked whether the government would take responsibility for the safety of students like her daughter, who are pursuing higher education.
“Payal used to tell me about the torture which she was facing by her seniors on petty issues. They threw files on her face in front of patients,” she said.
“Payal used to tell me not to give a written complaint against her seniors despite being harassed by them. She would say that doing so would adversely impact their career,” Abeda said.
She said Tadvi would have been the first woman MD (doctor of medicine) from their community.
Her husband Salman, a doctor, said it was possible that Tadav was “murdered” by the three women doctors.
Expressing solidarity with the protesters and with Tadvis family, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad said he would visit Maharashtra if needed to “fight for justice for our younger sister”.
The state women’s commission has also taken cognisance of the matter and issued a notice to the hospital authorities.
On Tuesday, it wrote a letter to the Mumbai police commissioner, seeking a thorough investigation in the case.
The panel, which termed the case “very serious”, has sought a report from the police within eight days, an official said.
It said there was a need to take stringent action against the accused under sections of abetment to suicide, the SC/ST Act and Anti-Ragging Act, the official said.
Licenses suspended
The BMC has suspended the licenses of the three accused doctors and of the gynaecology department head. The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors has also suspended the three doctors.
In a letter to the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), the accused said they wanted the college to conduct a fair investigation in the matter and “give justice” to them.
“This is not the way to do an investigation through police force and media pressure, without hearing our side,” the three doctors said in the letter.
However, a senior MARD official said, “We have credible inputs that the three doctors made casteist remarks against Dr Payal Tadvi, who allegedly committed suicide. We will cooperate with the police for the further investigation.”
(With PTI inputs)