Four suspended in Mumbai medical student suicide case

“The four doctors will remain suspended until the inquiry is over. Dr YI Ching Ling (the unit head) has been suspended because she did not pay heed to complaints of harassment,” says Sunil Dhamne, deputy municipal commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which oversees the hospital.

Agripada Police say the three resident doctors — Hema Ahuja, Ankita Khandelwal and Bhakti Mehare — remain absconding and search teams have been sent to trace them. Tadvi, a second-year PG student of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, committed suicide on May 22.

The three accused doctors, meanwhile, have written to the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) and to Nair hospital, claiming that they never made casteist remarks against Tadvi. “If heavy workload is given the name of ragging, then we all have been ragged,” the letter states.

Tadvi’s suicide has drawn sharp criticism from across India. On Monday, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi held a protest outside Nair hospital. Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad tweeted that they have given two days to the hospital to act against the accused. The Maharashtra State Commission for Women issued a notice to the hospital over caste discrimination and ragging.

Abeda says her letter of May 13 — the family’s third plea to the hospital in one year — received a stamp in the dean’s office but was returned. Its contents, in Marathi, show that Tadvi’s suicide was a tragedy waiting to happen.

It states that the junior doctor felt “humiliated and was mentally tortured”. It names the three seniors and alleges that Payal was not allowed to stay in the operation theatre, facilitate delivery or do rounds in the out-patient department. “We waited for the dean for two hours. When he did not come, we took the letter back,” says Abeda.

In the letter, Abeda, who suffers from cancer, says she would regularly visit Nair hospital’s radiation department for treatment. “My daughter worked so hard, she could sometimes not visit me. Once, I saw her seniors ridiculing her in the gynaecology ward. I wanted to answer them, but she stopped me saying this will only make matters worse,” it states.

According to Nair hospital dean Dr R N Bharmal, he was “never informed about this case”. “We have an anti-ragging cell but sadly she (Tadvi) did not approach it,” says Bharmal.

Tadvi’s family says she was scared to “bring up the caste issue” fearing repercussions. “She kept saying if everybody knew she was from the ST category, matters may get worse for her,” says her brother Mehmood.

Agripada Police have registered a case under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act; Anti-Ragging and Information Technology Act; and sections for abetment to suicide against Ahuja, Khandelwal and Mehare.

Two members from a WhatsApp group where the three allegedly ridiculed Tadvi were also questioned. The two are said to have confirmed that the seniors ragged Tadvi and mocked her expertise in gynaecology on the group.

Tadvi’s elder brother is crippled by polio. Her husband Dr Salman Tadvi says the family hoped she would financially support them once she started practice.

“Payal was the first to become a doctor in our family. She worked hard to get there,” says Tadvi’s father Salim Tadvi, a government clerk in Jalgaon.