Bengaluru: Male nurse at Fortis Hospital sexually assaults a 54-year-old patient

A 54-year-old woman who was admitted at Fortis Hospital filed a complaint against a male nurse stating he sexually assaulted her. A report in The New Indian Express states that the victim has told the police that on October 5 around midnight, the male nurse came to her room. He started to touch her inappropriately and she informed her son about it. Her husband then filed a police complaint who in turn have arrested the male nurse identified as Shivakumar.

The report adds that Shivakumar, 35, confessed to the crime during the police interrogation. A case has been filed under Indian Penal Code Section 354A (physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures). 

Her husband reportedly informed the senior staff at the hospital, but they refused to listen to him and told him that the male nurse was only checking the patient. The police have stated that the hospital didn’t do a background check on the male nurse before they hired him. The nurse had reportedly been warned earlier for misbehaving with a female staff. 

The report adds that Dr Manish Mattoo, zonal director, Fortis Hospitals, in a release said: “On finding that a patient objected to inappropriate physical contact by our employee, we terminated him. We are extremely responsible and have no tolerance to such acts.”