The Bombay High Court on Tuesday said there are many lacunae in the probe carried out by the Mumbai Crime Branch in the death of 26-year-old Payal Tadvi and said the “medical profession was no longer noble.”

A Single Bench of Justice Sadhana Jadhav was hearing bail applications filed by Dr. Hema Ahuja (28), Dr. Bhakti Mehare (26) and Dr. Ankita Khandelwal (27), all third-year resident doctors at BYL Nair Hospital currently lodged at the Byculla prison for allegedly harassing, ragging and abetting the suicide of Tadvi, who belonged to a Scheduled Tribe.

When special public prosecutor Raja Thakare was reading the charge sheet, Justice Jadhav said, “Look at the number of authorities that [Tadvi’s] mother went to raise a complaint … Dr. Yi Ching Ling, who heads the obstetrics and gynaecology department at the BYL Nair Hospital has clearly shirked responsibility by refusing to take cognisance of a complaint of harassment made by Tadvi’s mother, and therefore, she must be added to the list of the accused persons in the case.”

The court then directed the police to initiate proceedings to seek necessary permissions to take action against Dr Ling.

Statements by August 9

After being pulled up by the court for not recording statements of relevant witnesses, Mr. Thakare said the Crime Branch will take all steps to record statements of doctors Snehal Shinde, Geeta Kulkarni, Ziyan Sayyad, Anupama Kanwar, Devika and Surabhi by August 9 under Section 164 (recording of confessions and statements) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The court directed the chief metropolitan magistrate “to take expeditious steps to see the statements are recorded at the earliest.”

Mr. Thakare said the investigating officer was prima facie of the opinion that the doctors responsible in the case would be liable for an offence under Section 7 (deemed abetment) of the Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act, and this included the conduct of Dr. Ching Ling for not paying heed to the complaints made by Tadvi’s mother Abeda, husband Salman, and her colleagues.

The court once again suggested the medical licences of all three accused be terminated till the end of the trial.

Advocate Aabad Ponda, appearing for the three doctors, argued for their bail and said they have been in judicial custody for 70 days. He said they are deeply sorry and never intended that Tadvi end her life. He said they deserved to be granted bail since they were not accused of murder or homicide.

The court, however, said the comparison with homicide or murder did not fit the case as the accused had inflicted continuous mental injury on the deceased.

‘Mental injury’

Justice Jadhav said, “Often it is said that physical injury is better than mental injury for the latter goes unseen and is left untreated. However, in the present case there are no assumptions. The deceased and her family raised several complaints before the suicide, the mental injury was seen and it could have been curtailed, yet, no one too serious note of it. You can’t say, thus, that this is not a case of murder or homicide for mental injury was inflicted upon her,” the court said.

Referring to the conduct of the doctors, the court said, “Everyone merely said this is common in medical colleges. What kind of attitude is this where doctors [behave] like that? This profession is no more noble.”

The prosecution also made a request before the court that media should be prohibited from reporting on court proceedings in the case. The defence consented to it, but the judge said an order will be passed on this later. The court added that the prosecution must keep in mind that another Bench of the HC had revoked a media gag order on the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case.

Tadvi killed herself in her hostel room on the hospital’s premises on May 22. The three doctors was sent to judicial custody on May 31 and subsequently filed their bail pleas. Their pleas were filed in HC on June 29 after the city civil and sessions court refused to grant them bail on June 24.