Police Inspector, others booked for assaulting doctors, nurses at Puducherry govt hospital

PUDUCHERRY: The upholders of the law seem to have turned law breakers with  an Inspector of Police along with others allegedly  assaulting  and intimidating  doctors and nurses at Indira Gandhi Government General hospital and Post Graduate Institute after the death of his father on Thursday.

Based on a complaint from the Medical Superintendent of the hospital S Vasudevan, an FIR has been registered against the Inspector P Shanmuga Sundaram and others under Section 143 (unlawful assembly), Section 294 (b) (obscene acts or  words in public place) Section 332 (voluntarily causes hurt to any person being a public servant in the discharge of his duty), IPC 506 (criminal intimidation) IPC 356 (assaults or uses criminal force to any person) read with 149 IPC in Grand Bazar police station.

The incident happened at around 6 p.m on Thursday and following protests in the hospital with health workers striking work and resorting to protest,  the FIR was registered at around 1.10 a.m on Friday.

Puducherry Police Inspector Shanmughasundaram and others booked on charges of assaulting and intimidating doctors, female nursing officers at Government General Hospital in Puducherry. Protest by Health workers led to FIR at 1.10 a.m on Friday .@NewIndianXpress @xpresstn pic.twitter.com/R7eswQ7TiP

— Debjani Dutta (@Debjani_TNIE) October 2, 2020

According to hospital sources, Shanmugha sundaram’s father Pakkirisamy (80) was admitted in the hospital and was treated  for Necrotising Fasciitis, Decubitus, ulcer and Septicemia in the ICU.

On improvement of his condition a little, he was brought to the Special ward and was being treated there.

However his condition deteriorated again and he expired. While the ECG on the patient was being done for a confirmation of death, Shanmugham wanted the patient to be taken to ICU.

Following this Shanmugha Sundaram and 10 other attendants approximately manhandled the doctors and nursing staff at around 6 p.m.

Dr Vasudevan in his complaint to the police reported that the accused persons have assaulted the doctors and verbally abused using unparliamentary words and intimidated the staff nurses using the metal instruments present in the vicinity and eventually tore the uniform of the female nursing officer who was on duty.

Shanmugha sundaram was primarily in the onslaught and others followed suit, he said. Another doctor was threatened, man-handled and chased by the group from the third floor to the ground floor.

The constable in the outpost who was called to safeguard the health personnel could only watch the entire scene as he was also pushed aside by the group.  

The mobile phones of health workers who were recording the incidents were confiscated by the group.

The hospital staff gathered and took to protest demanding action against the Inspector and others and security at work.

Health Authorities who were informed came to the hospital , followed by Senior Superintendent of Police (Law and Order) Prateekha Godara. Only after registration of the FIR was the protest withdrawn.

In between a group of persons identifying themselves to be advocates of Shanmughasundaram tried to prevent the registration of FIR by stating that no medical negligence complaint would be filed and the body of the deceased be released.  

Hospital authorities said that they are open to postmortem to ascertain the cause of death to rule out medical negligence.