Had mistaken Operation theatre for ward: BRD doctors ‘assault’ homeguard

The medical college has set up a committee to probe the incident; police are yet to file FIR on homeguard’s plaint

DOCTORS AT state-run B R D Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur allegedly beat up a homeguard constable for mistakenly going near an operation theatre (OT) with an ailing colleague in the early hours of Thursday. The incident took place when the constable, Deepak Vishwakarma (45) — posted at Homeguard Divisional Training Centre (DTC) in Gorakhpur — arrived at the hospital to admit his colleague. Despite Vishwakarma lodging a complaint soon after the incident, police had not filed an FIR into the incident at the time of filing of the report. The medical college, meanwhile, has set up a committee to probe the incident.

Chandrabhan, the instructor at the training centre, said: “Deepak took his colleague to the district hospital late Wednesday. Since his condition deteriorated, the patient was referred to the medical college around 2.30 am… After initial formalities were completed at the BRD hospital, Deepak was asked by the staff to take his colleague to ward 14.”

“Deepak reached the second floor while looking for the ward… He reached near the OT, mistaking it for the ward. A guard stopped him and started misbehaving. As Deepak objected, a doctor came out of the OT and slapped Deepak and hurled abuses,” he added.

“As other homeguard jawans accompanying Deepak started to make a video of the incident and Deepak called up the police, some more doctors from the OT came out and started to beat him up. Soon, the other homeguards fled, finding themselves outnumbered,” said Chandrabhan, adding that by the time he arrived at the hospital, Deepak had been rescued by the policemen who had arrived at the scene.

“They, however, could not muster the courage to question the doctors and instead took Deepak to the local Gulhariya police station around 4 am. Deepak submitted a written complaint against the doctors and was taken to the district hospital for medical examination. He was discharged later,” Chandrabhan said. Vishwakarma had suffered injuries on his face, ears and hands, he added.

When contacted, Gorakhpur SSP Satyarth Aniruddha Pankaj said: “The homeguard was beaten up by some persons, when he was looking inside the OT. It is not a serious incident and an NCR (non-cognizable report) will be lodged.” Asked whether an NCR has been lodged, he said: “It was not such a serious matter. I haven’t cross checked whether an NCR has been lodged.”

Gulhariya police Station Officer Om Hari Bajpayee, meanwhile, said that no case has been registered yet. He said that according to his information, around 20 to 25 doctors had assaulted Vishwakarma.

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B R D medical college principal, P K Singh, said a two-member committee — comprising hospital chief medical superintendent R S Shukla and professor surgery Rakesh Saxena — has been set up to probe the matter. Action will be taken against those responsible, he added.

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