Six days after a female post-graduate medical student Payal Tadvi hanged herself in her hostel room of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)-run BYL Nair Medical College here, the Mumbai police on Tuesday arrested one of the three absconding doctors of the same college for allegedly abetting her suicide through casteist insults.
The arrest of Bhakti Mehere came on a day when Maharashtra Medical Education Minister Girish Mahajan confirmed that there was evidence in the anti-ragging report to suggest that the victim student ended her life after the three accused doctors allegedly harassed her through casteist insults.
Bhakti, who had been absconding ever since Tadvi committed suicide on Wednesday last, was arrested by the Agripada police, after an intense search.
The police are on the look-out for two other accused doctors—Hema Ahuja and Ankita Khandelwal— who have also been on the run since
Tadvi's suicide. The two absconding doctors have reportedly moved the court for an anticipatory bail.
In a related development, the Hospital has suspended the three senior doctors —Bhakti, Hema and Ankita and also the Head of Department Dr Yi Ching Ling — for allegedly abetting Dr Tadvi's suicide.
The three accused doctors had earlier been suspended by Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) for allegedly abetting the junior doctor’s suicide with casteist insults.
A second-year PG student of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at the Topiwala National Medical College, attached
to the BYL Nair Hospital, Tadvi was found hanging in her hostel room that she shared with three other students on May 22.
The victim student’s husband Salman and mother Abida Salim have accused three senior women doctors — Bhakti, Hema and Ankita — of discriminating, harassing and torturing Tadvi, who hailed from a Muslim-tribal background. They have demanded "strictest action" against the three women doctors.
The three doctors' suspension from the service by the BMC came after the Agripada police registered offences against them on Sunday last under the Atrocities Act, the Anti-Ragging Act, IT Act and section 306 (abetment of suicide) of Indian Penal Code.
Tadvi’s husband Salman has told the police that she was singled out for harassment as she belonged to lower caste. As part of the ragging that they allegedly subjected to Tadvi to, the accused doctors would not let her study and humiliated her on WhatsApp messages, Salman alleged.
Tadvi's mother Abeda told the police that her daughter had been sternly advised by the accused doctors not to lodge a formal complaint against the latter as it would impact her career.