Tabrez Ansari lynching case: Two doctors face action for negligence

RANCHI: The Jharkhand government on Friday ordered action against the two doctors in the Tabrez Ansari lynching case for being negligent in discharging their duties. 

Health Minister Banna Gupta has directed to initiate departmental action against the two doctors -- Dr. Om Prakash Keshari and Dr. Shahid Anwar -- who attended to the 24-year-old Ansari after being taken to Sadar Hospital at Saraikela–Kharsawan. They did not examine him properly and declaring him fit to go to jail. Due to this, his condition deteriorated further leading to his death, the minister said.

Ansari was allegedly thrashed for several hours after being tied with a pole and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’ on June 18, last year, on suspicion of stealing a motorcycle along with two other persons in Seraikela. He succumbed to injuries four days later in a hospital on June 22.

“The probe has ended and it was found that some lapses were committed by the two doctors. Accordingly, orders have been passed to initiate departmental proceeding against them,” said Principal Health Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni. 

The action was taken on the basis of a report submitted by the district administration after conducting a proper investigation into the matter, he added.

It has been alleged in the report that the doctors examined him twice on June 17, but they did not take the job seriously. Moreover, when another doctor came to examine him in the morning, he conducted only an X-ray instead of a full-body check-up. No injury or any other details were mentioned in the report.

The other doctor, who examined Tabrez in the evening, also gave his report on the basis of the X-ray taken in the morning without examining him properly.

Meanwhile, Shaista Parveen, wife of Tabrez Ansari, met Chief Minister Hemant Soren and demanded a CBI probe into the case.