On Sunday evening, in a joint press statement, the state unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the Assam Medical Service Association (AMSA) called for 24 hours protest and withdrawal of medical services, excluding emergency services by doctors from 6am of September 3 to 6am next day.

Police said that a day after a 73-year-old doctor died in Assam’s Jorhat district on being beaten by tea garden workers after one of their co-workers died at the hospital, almost 21 persons were arrested on Sunday.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Jorhat SP NV Chandrakant, said that Somra Majhi (32), a temporary worker at the Teok tea garden, was taken ill and admitted to the garden hospital. Doctor Deben Dutta was on lunch break and the nurse administered primary treatment. Afterwards when the doctor came back, he saw that the patient had unfortunately died. A mob of around 250 to 300 people gathered the hospital, damaged it and assaulted the doctor.They hit and cut him with glass shards. The doctor suffered head and leg injuries. The police arrived and saved him from the mob, shifted him to Jorhat Medical College and Hospital (JMCH) but he died on the way. They have detained 21 people as of now.

Nilesh Gond, the secretary of the Jorhat district branch of the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), the largest trade union organisation of tea gardens of Assam, told The Indian Express that Manjhi got injured after he fell in the bathroom but could have been suffered a stroke. The doctor came 30 minutes later after the patient was brought in but by then Manjhi was already dead. This enraged the workers and they attacked him. Gond said condemning the violence that 21 detained belong to the tea tribe community.

On Tuesday at 7 pm, there will be a candlelight procession by doctors to grieve the death of Dutta. The IMA state unit, in a statement, said that the attack on Dr Dutta had crossed “all tolerable limits”. The Assam Medical Service Association (AMSA) has written to Assam DGP Kuladhar Saikia over this incident, insisting immediate arrest of all culprits.

The Kolkata-based Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited owns the Teok tea estate. The company said in a ‘lock-out’ notice that there was “total insecurity and chaos” in the garden and all its executives feared the safety of their lives. The lock-out will continue until the atmosphere is favorable to running the garden.

The company further said that the brutal crowd did not allow any medical attention to be given to the grievously injured Senior Medical Officer and they also prevented the ambulance from reaching him for about an hour. The injured doctor was eventually rescued by the Magistrate and police at around 5.30 pm and immediately administered first aid. They were shifted to JMCH for further treatment.