FIR against three Churu hospital staff for ‘anti-Muslim chat’

JAIPUR: A case has been registered against three persons, including a woman doctor of a private hospital in Churu’s Sardarshahar, for WhatsApp chats in which the trio allegedly stated that they will not treat Muslim patients. The chats are of April 8. The screenshots of the chat that went viral on social media has been used to file the FIR following a complaint. An apology was also issued on social media by Dr Sunil Choudhary, who runs the hospital, claiming that the hospital does not exclude any one community and all patients are treated.
The three persons named in the FIR are Dr Bhagwati Badaliya, Lalit Singh and Ankita who had allegedly posted the messages on a group chat. The chat had messages like ‘stop attending to Muslims patients’. The messages allegedly followed the same theme with one member saying that 'Muslims should be asked to go to a Muslim doctor'.
Sardarshahar police station SHO Mahender Dutt Sharma said, "Initially, we just received a complaint in the control room and on Sunday night. Another person came forward with the same grievance following which we registered the FIR.”
The case has been registered under IPC sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, others), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) and Disaster Management Act 2005.
“We will conduct an investigation to check the authenticity of the messages as only screenshots are available with us at present. Also it has to be found as to who clicked the screenshot and circulated them on social media. As of now, we will not arrest anyone till all the facts are verified," added the SHO.
Meanwhile, the hospital administration maintained that they will take required action only after the police investigation. "Right now, we are not thinking of taking any action against the staff till their charges are proven by cops. We have records to prove that no patient has been denied treatment based on their religion. Probably, some member of the group circulated the chats but there was no intention to hurt any religious sentiments,” Dr Choudhary said.