Two days after vandalism at Rinchi Hospital in Ranchi, the police on Sunday arrested one Dhananjay Pandey, a 45-year-old attendant of the man who died at Rinchi Hospital in Ranchi on charges of assaulting doctors and causing damage to property at the hospital.
The development comes a day after Chief Secretary D K Tiwari directed the police to arrest the perpetrators in the case within 24 hours on Saturday.
“The 45-year-old man, who happens to be a relative of the man who died at Rinchi on Friday, has been arrested. We are interrogating him to get through to other men involved in the attack on doctors,” said Ranchi Superintendent of Police (Rural), Ashutosh Shekhar.
Meanwhile, doctors across the State on Sunday worked wearing black badges as a mark of protest against the attack on doctors at Rinchi Hospital on Friday. A delegation of doctors also met State Urban Development Minister CP Singh and highlighted their concerns to him.
“A delegation of doctors met Minister CP Singh today. He has assured quick action in the case. However, we want the Medical Protection Act implemented in Jharkhand,” said Dr. Pradeep Singh, General Secretary, Indian Medical Association (IMA0, Jharkhand Chapter.
On Friday, a 21-year-old man, Ashutosh Pandey was brought to Rinchi Hospital near Kathal More in Ranchi after he reportedly drowned in Patratu Dam. Doctors claim that Pandey had died of asphyxiation before being brought to the hospital. However, his attendants and about 100 locals went on a rampage soon after the news of his death.
They vandalised property at the hospital and allegedly thrashed three doctors, who sustained severe injuries.
“We have had enough. There is a limit to tolerance. This is not the first instance where doctors were assaulted in Jharkhand. It is high time that we start taking actions against the perpetrators and do something to protect our doctors,” said Dr. Pradeep Kumar Singh, General Secretary, Jharkhand chapter of Indian Medical Association (IMA).
Soon after the incident on Friday, doctors handed over a memorandum to Senior Superintendent of Police Anish Gupta demanding arrest of the assaulters within 48 hours. Later, they visited the office of IMA in Ranchi and unanimously decided to go on a protest from Saturday.
Jharkhand, doctors said, has witnessed several incidents of attacks by attendants on medicos in the recent past. The Medical Protection Act (MPA) is yet to be implemented here and doctors have been pressing for its implementation since years.
In February last year, a doctor was heckled by attendants of a patient at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) prompting medicos at the hospital to go on an indefinite strike. A couple of months later, in June, a nurse was thrashed by attendants of a patient who died in the hospital. This incident too caused uproar by RIMS staff. Similar incidents were also reported in Patliputra Medical College Hospital (PMCH) in Dhanbad and Mahatma Gandhi Medical College Hospital (MGMCH) in Jamshedpur.
Implementation of MPA has been a long pending demand of the Jharkhand chapter of the IMA. The Act has already been implemented in 18 states in India and IMA wants Jharkhand to be the 19th state to implement the MPA.
The Cabinet had approved the MPA in Jharkhand in 2017. Later, a select committee too gave a report on it. But it is yet to be passed by the assembly.
The Act mandates imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of Rs 50,000 for attacks on doctors, nurses and hospital establishments.