Hyderabad Two days after a 26-year-old postgraduate medical student of Kakatiya Medical College in Telangana’s Warangal attempted suicide, her senior was arrested on Friday for allegedly harassing her, police said.
The first-year post-graduate student of anesthesia department, who attempted suicide by administering herself a poisonous injection while on duty at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) government hospital at Warangal, is undergoing treatment at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, and her condition is said to be very critical.
Warangal superintendent of police A V Ranganath told reporters on Friday that based on a complaint lodged by the first year PG student’s father, an assistant sub-inspector of Railway Protection Force, the police had registered a case against a second year medico on the charges of harassment, abetment of suicide and also under SC/ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act. “We have arrested the accused and remanded him to judicial custody,” the SP said.
Preliminary investigation by the police, based on the mobile data records of the fist-year medico, revealed that she had been facing “persistent targeted harassment” and “deliberate attempts to insult her” by the senior, though the latter claimed that he had only reprimanded her about her work.
Ranganath said the first-year medico was a daring girl who questioned the senior, which did not go down well with the latter. On February 18, the senior admonished her in their internal WhatsApp group over a particular incident. She felt insulted and responded personally to the senior saying, “Mind your own business. You are trying to insult me. In case you have anything to say, you should tell my HoD.”
The police said investigation revealed that there were such instances of clashes between the two. “She was a very sensitive woman and she could not bear the humiliation meted out to her by her senior. He could not tolerate her questioning his attitude and had started harassing her,” Ranganath said.
The first-year medico’s father told reporters that the senior had always found fault with her work and forced her to work overtime. “We brought it to the notice of the local police and the latter spoke to college principal Dr D Mohan Das and head of the department Dr Nagarjuna Reddy. Had they taken prompt action against the senior, my daughter would not have been in this position,” he said.
Ranganath, however, denied negligence on the part of the college management. He said the college authorities had counselled the senior and the first-year medico separately. “They warned the senior against such behaviour,” he said.
Meanwhile, some junior doctors at the Kakatiya Medical College struck work in support of the senior, while expressing sympathy for the junior. They served a strike notice on the college management saying the police had arrested the senior on false charges based on media reports.
The junior doctors’ association said in a statement that it was very common in the profession that seniors would pull up juniors at the workplace. “We pray for her, but we strongly condemn the allegations made against the senior. The police should drop charges against him,” the statement said.
