Tadvi case: Accused trio files bail plea

Mumbai: Three senior doctors of a civic-run hospital, arrested for allegedly abetting the suicide of a junior colleague by harassing and making casteist remarks against her, Monday filed bail applications.

The three doctors – Hema Ahuja (28), Bhakti Mehare (26) and Ankita Khandelwal (27) – of Nair Hospital, booked for driving their colleague Dr Tadvi to commit suicide, approached the Sessions court seeking bail.

The trio filed for bail after the special court remanded them to judicial custody. Although all three filed anticipatory bail applications in order to avoid getting arrested, the police arrested them before their application for pre-arrest bail could even be heard.

The court remanded them to three days’ police custody and in the meantime, the probe was transferred to the Mumbai crime branch, which had sought further custody of the accused but the court remanded them to judicial custody.

In their bail applications, the three have claimed that they never made any remarks on Tadvi's caste and were in fact not even aware about her caste.

They further claimed that they had only pulled up Tadvi for doing a “poor job” in the hospital and had not harassed her as alleged by her family.

The trio blamed extreme stress and burden of work for Dr Tadvi’s suicide. They claimed that the victim committed suicide due to high stress.

According to the applicants, government hospitals have limited staff and doctors who are so overworked that they don’t get adequate sleep and rest and the conditions are extremely stressful.

On May 22, 2019, Dr Tadvi was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her room at Nair Hospital on the eighth floor in the OPD building. The Agripada police registered a case of accidental death, as it appeared to be suicide. However later, her family alleged that Dr Tadvi’s senior doctors had ragged her and hurled casteist abuses because she belonged to scheduled tribes. The police then booked the three doctors under provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Pevention of Atrocities) Act, Anti-Ragging Act, IT Act and section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.