Rape in hospital ICU: Accused identified, arrest in 24 hours, say police

In the FIR, the victim, the wife of a Delhi Police sub-inspector, states, “At around 3.30 am, a man unknown to me entered my curtained bed in the ICU. There was no hospital staff present at the time. I took him to be a doctor. He put his hand on my mouth to muzzle me and then touched me inappropriately and sexually assaulted me. He also checked my medical files and drew the curtains close. He assaulted me again. Then he walked out.”

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Rajender Sharma, chairman of the 100-bed hospital where the incident was reported, claimed that the suspect was stopped at the ICU gates by a guard but he was on phone and pretended to be relative of a patient. “Because the relative of an accident victim had just walked into the ICU, the accused followed, apparently busy on his phone,” Sharma said.

Sharma said the victim did not raise an alarm when the accused entered her chamber, pretending to be looking for his kin. “The guard thought everything was fine. (As per the CCTV footage) the man entered the ICU soon after the nurse went to relieve herself, and left just before she returned — all within five minutes. The patient did not ring the bell to call for help or tell the nurse what had occurred. She only asked the nurse to call her husband who came three hours later,” he said.

The FIR was registered under IPC Sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation); no case of negligence was registered against hospital authorities. To this, SHO Dahiya said, “We are waiting to arrest the accused and verify if he was stopped at the ICU gate. We will take action accordingly.”