Dr Payal Tadvi Suicide: Three accused claim innocence, say didn't know doctor's caste

Six days after Dr Payal Tadvi, 23, a gynaecology student working as a resident doctor at BYL Nair Hospital committed suicide, a doctor accused of abetting her suicide was arrested on Tuesday.

The Agripada police have arrested Bhakti Mehere, one of the three senior doctors against whom the offence was registered, after initial interrogation. As per police sources, Mehare was hiding in an apartment located in South Mumbai.

The two other accused doctors — Ankita Khandelwal and Hema Ahuja — are still absconding and have moved an anticipatory bail application before the session court, claiming innocence.

In their bail plea they said that were not even aware of the victim's caste and had only professional interaction with her.

All the accused have been booked under section 306 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, section 4 of The Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act, section 3 (10) of the Scheduled Castes And The Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act) and section 67 of the Information Technology Act.

The civic body has suspended the Head of the Department (HOD) of gynaecology department and sources from the Agripada police station told DNA that the HOD was questioned by the cops on Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, a 21-member anti-ragging committee of the hospital has submitted a committee report to Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) on Wednesday.

According to state medical education minister Girish Mahajan, the report reveals that Tadvi had been a victim of targeted harassment and castist slurs by seniors.

"However, none of the other students came forward to complain about the incident or any incident of ragging," said Dr RN Bharmal, dean of Nair Hospital.

Besides this, the three-member committee who was supposed to review the anti-ragging rules and regulations has been dissolved after the family members, social activists requested state's Girish Mahajan to remove Dr TP Lahane and Dr Dileep Mhaiskar, vice-chancellor of the MUHS from the committee owing to cases under the Atrocities Act against them.

A new four-member committee has been formed on Tuesday by the state government to review the anti-ragging rules and regulations. Dr P Wakode, deputy DMER, Dr Ajay Chandanwale, dean of JJ Hospital, Dr Bachi Hathiram, HoD of ENT department, BYL Nair Hospital and Dr Kalidas Chavan, MUHS registrar are four newly appointed members of the committee.

"The four-member committee will review the current anti-ragging mechanism in the college and give suggestions if needed. The rules are 15-years-old and it might require changes," added Dr Bharmal.

Happy with the decision, Dr Salman Tadvi, husband of the deceased said, "The state government has agreed our demands and has removed Dr T P Lahane and Dr Mhaisker from the committee. We have also asked the management to arrest all three accused within two days."

To avert such tragedy in future, the hospital authorities have decided to counsel resident doctors and track their medical records, especially mental health, after every 15 days, informed Dr Bharmal.

—With inputs from Dhananjay Khatri and agencies