Doctors brand Bhopal gang-rape survivor ‘accused’ in medical report

After the trauma of rape, the horror of being branded an accused by doctors of a premier government hospital awaited the 19-year-old girl who was gang-raped in Bhopal on October 31.
Image used for representational purpose only.
Image used for representational purpose only.

BHOPAL: After the trauma of rape, the horror of being branded an accused awaited the 19-year-old girl who was gang-raped in Bhopal on October 31. Doctors of the government hospital who examined her termed her an “accused” instead of “victim” in their medical report.

As if that was not enough, the report went on to say that two of the accused had sexual intercourse with the girl “with her consent and will”.

Shockingly, the two doctors of the government-run Sultania Janana Hospital who examined the survivor on November 1 were not senior consultants or experts, but medical students.

Left red-faced over the shocking faux pas, the Madhya Pradesh government has issued show-cause notices to the doctors who committed the blunder and directed that from now on, a senior woman doctor will supervise inquiries in such sensitive cases. Sultania Janana Hospital is one of the premier hospitals associated with the Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal.

Sources in the Government Railway Police (GRP), who are part of the investigations into the gang-rape case, confirmed about the gaffes in the medical report to the New Indian Express. “It was the GRP only which spotted the anomaly in the medical report of the gang-rape survivor and raised a query from the doctors at the government hospital, after which the clarifications were issued by the hospital administration about the two flaws in the report,” said a GRP officer in Bhopal.

Dr Karan Pipre, Superintendent of the Sultania Hospital, admitted to the errors in the medical report. However, he claimed that it wasn’t the GRP but the concerned unit in-charge of the hospital who spotted the errors and had them rectified immediately. A new report was issued the same day, he claimed.
The medical report is an important document for proper investigation and subsequent prosecution in such cases.

Dr Pipre said the authorities in the state health and family welfare department as well as the Gandhi Medical College had taken a serious view of the matter and issued directions to the hospital that the examination of victims in cases of crime against women will have to be done under the supervision of senior doctors and consultants.

The department has also issued notices to Dr Khushbhu Gajbhiye and Dr Sanyogita who had prepared the medical report. But the issue has already created an uproar in the state capital. Congress leader Mandavi Chouhan demanded a thorough probe into the matter and action against the doctors.

The girl, whose both parents are in the police, was allegedly gang-raped by four men for three hours near the railway tracks about 100 meters from the Habibganj railway station when she was returning home from her coaching class on October 31 evening.

The victim had to run from pillar to post to get an FIR registered as the police initially dismissed her saying she was narrating a “filmy” story and squabbled over jurisdiction.

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The New Indian Express
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