Payal Tadvi suicide: Protests outside Nair Hospital over Mumbai Doctor’s ‘Suicide’ After Casteist Slurs. Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran. (File)Maharashtra medical education minister Girish Mahajan Tuesday confirmed that the evidence in the anti-ragging report in connection with the suicide of a 26-year-old doctor in Mumbai suggested that the deceased was a victim of targeted harassment and that her seniors made casteist remarks against her. The minister also assured that the accused doctors will be arrested soon.
The minister’s remarks came even as the family of Dr Payal Tadvi, who hanged herself in her hostel room allegedly after casteist slurs by her senior colleagues, protested outside the BYL Nair hospital in Mumbai where she worked. As of now, Police have arrested Bhakti Mehare, one of the three resident doctors accused in the case.
Maharashtra medical education minister Girish Mahajan assures arrest of three accused doctors in suicide case of Dr Payal Tadvi in Nair hospital. Anti ragging report out, Mahajan says evidence found of targetted harassment and caste remarks by seniors @IndianExpress
— Tabassum (@tabassum_b) May 28, 2019
Protesters belonging to the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and other Dalit and tribal organisations also joined Tadvi’s mother Abida and husband Salman who demanded “strictest action” against the three seniors who allegedly drove her to end her life by “torturing her by ragging and hurling casteist abuses at her”.
Expressing solidarity with the protesters and with Tadvi’s family, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad said he would visit Maharashtra if needed to “fight for justice for our younger sister”.
The National Commission for Women, meanwhile, shot off a letter to BYL Nair hospital authorities demanding investigation and action into the death of Tadvi. The Maharashtra State Commission for Women has also taken cognisance of the matter and issued a notice to the hospital authorities demanding a reply within eight days on the action taken to implement the anti-ragging law.
ALSO READ | Payal Tadvi suicide: What is known about the Mumbai doctor’s case so far
Demanding government intervention, Salman said, “We want govt to intervene, police are not taking any action. It is possible Payal was murdered by the 3 women doctors.”
Abeda Tadvi, mother of Payal Tadvi outside Nair hospital. (Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)Tadvi, a second-year PG student of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, was found hanging in her hostel room that she shared with three other students on May 22. She was studying at the Topical National Medical College, attached with BYL Nair Hospital.
On Monday, the Head of the Gynaecology department, BYL Nair Hospital and three other doctors were suspended until further notice. Besides, Mehare, two other resident doctors — Hema Ahuja and Ankita Khandelwal—remain absconding and search teams have been sent to trace them.
While the Nair hospital dean Dr R N Bharmal denied receiving any information on the case, Tadvi’s mother, Abeda said the letter of May 13— asking them to change her daughter’s unit as she was being mentally harassed in name of castesim— was family’s third plea to hospital in a year. She also alleged that the letter received a stamp in the dean’s office but was returned. Its contents, in Marathi, show that Tadvi’s suicide was a tragedy waiting to happen.
