One of three seniors accused of harassing Dr Payal Tadvi has been arrested in connection with her suicide, Mumbai Police said on Tuesday, The Hindu reported.
Bhakti Mehare, who was arrested on Tuesday afternoon, was in hiding in Mumbai and had been tracked down by the police, an officer told the daily.
Mehare and the two other accused, Hema Ahuja and Ankita Khandilwal, have moved a sessions court for anticipatory bail, according to Times of India.
Tadvi was found hanging in her hostel room on 22 May. Her family has alleged that the doctors taunted her for belonging to a Scheduled Tribe.
On Tuesday, her parents protested at the state-run hospital in Mumbai where she worked.
Other protesters also joined Tadvi’s mother Abeda and husband Salman who demanded “strictest action” against the three seniors who allegedly drove her to end her life by “torturing her by ragging and hurling casteist abuses at her.
Protesters belonging to the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and other Dalit and tribal organisations held protests outside the BYL Nair Hospital over Tadvi’s death.
Abeda asked if the government would take responsibility for safety of students like her daughter, who are pursuing higher education.
She said Payal would have been the first woman MD doctor from their community.
“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.
Payal’s husband Salman, a doctor, said the family wants the government to intervene.
“We want the government to intervene. The police are not taking any action. It is possible that Payal was murdered by the three women doctors,” Salman said.
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 Maharashtra State Commission for Women has also taken cognisance of the matter and issued a notice to the hospital authorities demanding a reply within eight days on the action taken to implement the anti-ragging law.
The three women doctors at the hospital accused of driving Tadvi to suicide have sought a “fair probe” in the case.
In a letter to the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), the three Ankita Khandelwal, Hema Ahuja and Bhakti Mehare said they want 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.
MARD has suspended the three doctors.
"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," a senior MARD official said.
The three doctors have been booked under the Atrocities Act, the Anti-Ragging Act and the IT Act and Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC.
(With PTI inputs)