A day after a resident doctor at the BJ Medical College attempted suicide alleging he was not allowed to operate upon patients as he was a Dalit, Shahibaug police on Saturday lodged a complaint against nine doctors of the Civil Hospital.
The victim, M Mariraj, 29, a native of Tamil Nadu and a third-year PG surgery student, in a statement to police said that on Friday afternoon, when a patient came for surgery, he asked the doctors to allow him to operate. At that time, Dr Utkarsh Shah and Dr Neel Patel started abusing him and asked him to leave the operation theatre.
The student who had got admission under the All-India Schedule Caste (SC) quota then went to his room and tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. He then made a call to his friend in Tamil Nadu. After a while, his hostel friends found him unconscious in his room and rushed him to Civil Hospital for treatment. His condition is stable now.
AK Patel, inspector of Shahibug police station, said, “We have lodged a case under Atrocity Act and started investigation.” Mariraj alleged that earlier he was working at a unit handled by Dr Nina Shah, Dr Pankaj Modi, Dr Parth Dalal, Dr Gunvant Rathod and Dr Jayesh Parikh. During that time, the doctors used to discriminate against him and didn’t allow him to do surgery on patients as he was a Dalit.
He claimed that the doctors used to treat him like a peon and asked to bring tea for others. After he felt discriminated for demanding work, he had even complained to senior authorities.
Following this, he was shifted to a new unit, but the scenario didn’t change here as well.
As per his statement to the police, in the second unit Dr Utkarsh Shah, Dr Neel Patel, Dr Prashant Mehta and Dr Vikram Mehta used to discriminate against him.
DALITS PROTEST AT BJ
Around 50 Dalit members vandalised the signboards of doctors and dean on the premises of BJ Medical College in protest against the incident on Saturday afternoon. They also reportedly submitted a memorandum to the hospital authorities. On being informed, Shahibaug police reached the spot and brought the situation under control.
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