‘Harassed, forced to relive my horror over and over’: GMCH-32 doc seeks action against culprit

On June 27, the doctor of the anesthesia department at GMCH had been allegedly sexually harassed by an OT technician. An FIR was lodged on June 28.

On Friday, the victim told The Indian Express, “The internal committee instead of proceeding with the inquiry sincerely, actually seems to be more interested in digging up the events of the ongoing legal actions that have been taken up by me in the case.”

In a complaint, which she submitted to the Director Principal of GMCH-32, she enumerated how the inquiry committee was harassing her. “I had mentioned my name and my post as an anesthesia student in my application. Yet the committee members seemed not to be aware of the same and asked if I am a BSC student of a doctor. The notice served to me also referred to me as a BSC third-year student,” her letter reads.

Further, as per her account, the committee has also “negated the written statement presented by her, instead, asking her to narrate the whole sequence of events verbally for the purpose of recording, thereby forcing her to relive that horrible experience.”

Talking to The Indian Express, she said, “They forced me to talk about it in Hindi and Hindi only. I felt like I was being harassed all over again, by a bench of people who were sitting there and judging me for it.”

She states in the letter to the director that she was asked several inconsequential questions, like, “How did you come to know your FIR has been lodged? Did you visit the police station again?”

The committee reportedly even questioned her if she wanted justice or not. “I was asked this when I did not narrate the whole chain of events which went down at the police station,” she says.

The victim doctor has requested the Director to “steer this inquiry in the right direction so that the outcome may set an example.”

In the meantime, even as Chandigarh Police is yet to arrest the suspect technician, GMCH-32 has assigned duty to the accused in their monthly roaster in the same department that the victim doctor works at. SSP Chandigarh, Kuldeep Chahal when questioned about update into the investigation said, “We have already lodged the FIR.” He did not respond to further questions.