Mumbai | All the three accused in Dr Payal Tadvi’s suicide case in Nair Hospital have now been arrested by the Mumbai Police.
The third doctor accused of driving a 26-year-old postgraduate medical student at state-run BYL Nair Hospital in Mumbai to suicide has been arrested, news agency ANI reported on Wednesday.
According to ANI, Dr Ankita Khandelwal was arrested by Mumbai Police and will be produced before a court on Wednesday. The other doctors – Bhakti Mehre and Hema Ahuja, were arrested on Tuesday.
The family of Dr Payal Tadvi have accused the three on grounds of caste discrimination and ragging the victim.
The police have registered a case against Dr Khandelwal, Dr Ahuja and Dr Mehare under section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), sections of the Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribes Atrocities Act, Anti-Ragging Act and Information Technology Act, 2000.
“If the deceased had chosen to simply abstain from coming to the hospital when she was expected there and there were responsibilities to be performed by her from November 2018 to December 2018, if the deceased was labelled as a person who runs away (bhagoda), it cannot be said that it amounted to any kind of abetment to suicide or offences under the Prevention of SC/ST Act,” their bail plea read.
The three accused are, however, claiming that they did not know about Payal’s caste or community.
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