Patient slaps Rajawadi Hospital doctor, arrested

In yet another case of assault on a medical professional, a doctor was beaten up by a patient at the BMC-run Rajawadi Hospital in Vidyavihar on Tuesday.

The incident happened around 1.30am in the casualty and emergency care of the hospital. Five youth from Nityananda Nagar in Ghatkopar (West) arrived at the hospital with superficial injuries.

Dr Gaurav Haldankar (24), a resident in general surgery at the hospital, attended to their  injuries and went back to attend an emergency case.

“While Dr Haldankar was busy attending to a bleeding case of a patient, one of the youth approached him and insisted that they be attended to first,” said Dr Mahendra Wadiwalla, superintendent of Rajawadi Hospital.

Dr Haldankar was slapped on the face by Asif Suleman Sheikh (32). After the assault, resident doctors in the hospital staged a demonstration and demanded that the Sheikh be booked under Doctor’s Protection Act.

The doctors have demanded that the security in the hospital be heightened  and additional guards be recruited to safeguard the interests of doctors and patients.

“We have arrested Sheikh under Sections 332 (voluntarily causing hurt), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge his duty) and 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), on Monday. Sheikh was released on bail on Tuesday,” said Vikas Jadhav, police inspector of the Tilak Nagar police station.