Mumbai: The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and other Dalit and tribal organisations are holding protests outside the BYL Nair Hospital over the death of a doctor who was driven to suicide allegedly after casteist slurs were hurled at her in the state-run hospital.
The protesters were joined by 26-year-old Payal Tadvi’s mother Abida Tadvi and husband Dr. Salman who demanded strictest action against the three seniors who allegedly tortured her daughter during ragging and hurled casteist abuses at her.
“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 Tadvi’s family, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad said he would visit Maharashtra “if needed”. “We need to fight for justice for our younger sister,” he said.
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,” news agency PTI quoted a senior MARD official as saying.
The FIR filed after the second year PG student ended her life, stated that her seniors often threatened her, saying she wouldn't be allowed into operation theatres or allowed to perform deliveries. She was also mocked for hailing from the tribal community on WhatsApp groups.
Tadvi committed suicide on May 22. Her family has alleged that the doctors taunted her for belonging to a Scheduled Tribe.
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.
Tadvi's mother has earlier said that her daughter had called her up on May 22 about her alleged harassment.
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