A 14-year-old girl has alleged she was sexually assaulted during a medical examination at a private clinic in Odisha's Ganjam district, leading police to detain the accused Ayush doctor. The incident was reported on Sunday evening and formally lodged as a police complaint on Monday.
According to the complaint filed by the girl's mother, the two visited the private clinic on Sunday evening for a routine health check-up. The Ayush doctor running the clinic, identified as Sameer Pradhan by Odisha Tv and reported to be 32 years old, allegedly told the mother that a gynaecological examination of her daughter was required and took the teenager into a separate room alone.
About 30 minutes later, the girl reportedly emerged from the room in tears and told her mother she had been sexually assaulted during the so-called examination. She further alleged that the doctor threatened her life if she spoke about what had happened.
The mother's complaint was filed at Jagannathprasad police station, after which officers registered a case and took Pradhan into custody for questioning. Police have kept most operational details confidential given the sensitive, preliminary stage of the probe, but sources indicated that investigators are gathering evidence and recording statements as part of the standard procedure. As of Monday evening, medical examinations of both the accused and the survivor had reportedly not yet been conducted.
Ganjam Superintendent of Police Harisha B.C. confirmed both the sexual assault allegation and the detention of the accused doctor, but declined to share further details, citing the early stage of the investigation. The SP said appropriate legal action would follow once the probe's findings are established.
In May 2026, a similar incident was reported at LNJP Civil Hospital in Kurukshetra, Haryana, where a 15-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by Dr. Shailender Kumar Shally, a retired government doctor working as a consultant, while she was admitted for treatment.
The girl had been hospitalised for abdominal pain when the assault allegedly occurred; she later disclosed the incident to hospital staff after being shifted to the emergency ward with severe bleeding.
Following the FIR, the Haryana Health Department terminated Shally's consultancy, and the state's women's commission publicly questioned how he had been rehired after retirement without adequate scrutiny. The case, like the one in Ganjam, was registered under the POCSO Act.
(Rh/ARC/MSM)