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Indian doctor’s suicide: College confirms she was harassed over her caste, scolded hours before death
TIWN
Indian doctor’s suicide: College confirms she was harassed over her caste, scolded hours before death
PHOTO : TIWN

On May 22, hours before Dr Payal Tadvi committed suicide by hanging in her hostel room, she was scolded in the operation theatre in front of other staff and patients, and was seen crying as she left.

In the nine days leading to that morning, after her husband complained to the gynaecology unit head at the TN Topiwala National Medical College in Mumbai, she faced extreme harassment from three senior resident doctors. They had come to know about the complaint against them.
 
These events are part of a report submitted Tuesday by the anti-ragging committee of the college attached to B Y L Nair Hospital on the reasons behind the suicide of Payal (26), a second-year PG student of Gynaecology and Obstetrics.
 
Read | Payal Tadvi suicide: Three doctors accused of harassing medical student arrested
 
The report, based on statements from 30 people including Payal s family, colleagues and staff, has found evidence of harassment and caste remarks made by the three seniors, Dr Hema Ahuja, Dr Ankita Khandelwal and Dr Bhakti Mehare. Payal belonged to the Tadvi Muslim Bhil Scheduled Tribe community.
 
Police arrested Mehare late Tuesday afternoon and are looking for the two other doctors. All of them have been named in the FIR filed under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, IPC sections for abetment to suicide and Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1999. Payal s family was also part of a protest Tuesday outside the hospital to demand justice.
 
Explained: Who are Tadvi Bhil Muslims?
The family claims that for two days after a verbal complaint was made on May 13 by Payal s husband Dr Salman Tadvi to unit head Dr Y I Ching Ling, the three seniors did not talk to her. On the third day, one of them allegedly threw a file at her and rebuked her for shoddy work. The next day, they allegedly threatened that they will not let her complete the year.
 
Payal told us that the torture got worse after the complaint. We realised that the three seniors had the unit head s support, said her brother Ritesh Tadvi, who is polio-affected and travelled from Jalgaon to participate in the protest.
 
According to Salman, the three seniors did not let his wife perform caesarean procedures after his complaint. They would make her do minor work. First-year students who joined on May 1 were asked to assist in deliveries but Payal, despite being in the second year, was not allowed to work, he claimed.
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