One of three doctors accused in the Payal Tadvi suicide case has been arrested. Dr. Bhakti Mehare has been detained by the Mumbai Police on May 28.

On the same day, the National Commission for Women (NCW) demanded a report from BYL Nair Hospital. The hospital has also suspended the Head of Department, Gynaecology after Dr. Tadvi committed suicide.

Family members of 26-year-old doctor Dr Payal Tadvi staged a protest at the state-run hospital in Mumbai, where she worked, on May 28.

Other protesters, including members of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and other Dalit and tribal organisations, also joined Tadvi’s mother Abeda and husband Salman, who demanded ‘strictest action’ against the three seniors who ‘tortured her by ragging and hurling casteist abuses at her’.

Doctors protest at the state-run hospital where Dr Payal Tadvi worked in Mumbai (Photo: PTI)
Doctors protest at the state-run hospital where Dr Payal Tadvi worked in Mumbai (Photo: PTI)
Abeda said the government should take responsibility for safety of students like her daughter, who are pursuing higher education.

She said Payal would have been the first woman MD doctor from their community. “Payal used to tell me about the torture which she was facing by her seniors on petty issues. They threw files on her face in front of patients,” she said.

Payal’s husband Salman, a doctor, said the family wants the government to intervene.”We want the government to intervene. The police are not taking any action. It is possible that Payal was murdered by the three women doctors,” Salman said.

Meanwhile, the administration of BYL Nair Hospital had on May 26 formed an anti-ragging committee to probe the suicide, while Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) had suspended the three accused doctors — Dr Hema Ahuja, Dr Bhakti Mehar, and Dr Ankita Khandilwal.

“We have formed an anti-ragging committee to look into the matter. We have also sent a notice to three senior doctors, asking them to appear before us. They are currently not in Mumbai. The committee will file its report as soon as possible,” BYL Nair Hospital dean Dr Ramesh Bharmal told ANI.

“Based on the report, we will initiate appropriate action against them. As of now, MARD has suspended the three doctors,” Dr Bharmal added.

He denied claims of the victim’s mother Abeda Tadvi that she had complained to the hospital administration against the three doctors but no action was taken.

“Dr Payal’s mother claims that she had complained to the hospital about the alleged torture being meted out to her daughter are not true. We have received no complaint till date regarding this issue,” he said.

The three doctors have been booked under the Atrocities Act, the Anti-Ragging Act and the IT Act and Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC.