A senior doctor was arrested by the Kerala Police on November 14 for allegedly sexually assaulting a junior doctor at a government hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. The junior doctor was undergoing house surgery in the same hospital.
The arrested doctor is identified as Dr. Binu N K; he is a resident of Thiruvananthapuram and worked at Nedumangad District Hospital.
The incident occurred at noon on Friday, November 13, when Dr. Binu called the victim to his personal clinic and allegedly tried to sexually assault the second-year house surgeon.
According to the Police, he called her in his private consultation room that is situated in his residence.
However, the student managed to escape from his room and, soon after, she informed about the incident to her colleagues. With the help of her other co-workers, she was able to lodge a complaint against Dr. Binu at the Nedumangad Police Station.
The case was registered pertaining to rape by the police, and he was arrested at his residence on Saturday morning.
An officer from the Nedumangad Police Station said that Dr. Binu will be produced before court on Saturday.
The Health Department suspended Dr. Binu on the same day as his arrest.
However, the police were accused of delaying the arrest of the accused and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) staged a protest in front of the police station on Friday night. Vinu was taken into police custody from his home around 2.00 am on Saturday and formally arrested.
The Health Department said in its order suspending the doctor that his actions had "brought disrepute to the department and the government," as a responsible government servant and medical practitioner. It added that he had carried out private practice during official hours and that there was prima facie serious misconduct.
Citing these grounds, the department suspended him under Rule 10 of the Kerala Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1960.
The suspension comes on the back of severe criticism of the incident by Health Minister K Muraleedharan, who said the government would take action against the doctor.
"There is no doubt that action will be taken against the doctor. His track record is not very good, as far as I understand," he said.
He added that such incidents must never occur and emphasized that the government is responsible for ensuring the safety of women doctors.
Female Doctors are not safe working with their own male colleagues; the horrors of the RG Kar College Rape case haunt people every day, and every day a new case of sexual assault arises in this country.
(Rh/ARC)