On Thursday, police inspector along with others booked for allegedly assaulting and threatening doctors and nurses at Indira Gandhi Government General hospital and Post Graduate Institute in Puducherry because of the death of his father.

An FIR is registered against the Inspector P Shanmuga Sundaram along with others under Section 143 (unlawful assembly), Section 332 (voluntarily causes hurt to any person being a public servant in the discharge of his duty), Section 294 (b) (obscene acts or words in public place), IPC 506 (criminal intimidation), IPC 356 (assaults or uses criminal force to any person) with 149 IPC in Grand Bazar police station. The FIR was registered based on a complaint received from the Medical Superintendent of the hospital S Vasudevan.

The incident took place around 6 p.m. on Thursday and subsequent protests in the hospital along with the healthcare workers on strike, the FIR was registered around 1.10 a.m. on Friday.

As per the hospital sources, Shanmugha Sundaram’s father Pakkirisamy (80) was admitted in the hospital and was undergoing treatment for Necrotising Fasciitis, Decubitus along with ulcer and septicaemia in the ICU.

He was shifted to the special ward and was being treated there as his condition showed little improvement. Though, his condition worsened again and he died. The ECG on the patient was done for a confirmation of death, Shanmugham demanded that the patient be taken again in ICU. Shanmugha Sundaram and 10 other attendants manhandled the doctors and nursing staff at 6 p.m.

Dr Vasudevan in his complaint stated that the accused persons assaulted the doctors and verbally abused using abusive words and scared the staff nurses by the metal instruments in the vicinity and eventually tore the uniform of the female nursing officer on duty. Shanmugha Sundaram was mainly in the assault and the other men followed him. One more doctor was threatened, assaulted and even chased by the group from the 3rd floor to the ground floor.

The constable who was in the outpost was called to safeguard the healthcare staff and could only watch the entire scene because he was pushed aside by this furious group. The mobile phones of healthcare workers who were trying to record the incidents were seized by the group.

The hospital staff later gathered and protested demanding action against the Inspector and others and also the security at work. Health Authorities were informed and later they came to the hospital, followed by Senior Superintendent of Police (Law and Order) Prateekha Godara. The protest was withdrawn only after registration of the FIR was done.

A group of people identifying themselves to be advocates of Shanmugha Sundaram also tried to prevent the registration of FIR by maintaining that no medical negligence complaint can be filed and the body of the deceased patient to be released. Hospital authorities said that they post-mortem can as certain the cause of death to excludeany medical negligence.

Source: The New Indian Express