BHOPAL: Doctors continue to come under attack in Madhya Pradesh, but this time they haven’t been assaulted by local residents in any coronavirus containment zone. Instead, they came under attack by a man in khakhi.
The shocking incident happened in Bhopal on Wednesday evening, when two resident doctors – Dr Yuvraj Singh and Dr Rituparna Jana – of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS, Bhopal) were returning home after emergency duty at the hospital.
“We were returning home from emergency duty, when we were stopped by a police patrol party. Despite showing our identity cards, the cops not only assaulted us, but even abused us and blamed us for spreading coronavirus," alleged one of the two doctors Dr Rituparna Jana.
With the cops continuing to abuse and assault the two PG resident doctors, both the medicos had no option but to leave their belongings behind and escape from the spot.
Both the doctors are PG resident doctors at the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology at AIIMS, Bhopal.
While Dr Yuvraj Singh's hand was fractured, Dr Rituparna sustained injuries on her leg.
The AIIMS Resident Doctors Association (RDA) condemned the assault on the doctors and demanded strict action against the perpetrators within 24 hours.
SP (Bhopal South) Sai Krishna Thota attached police constable Sunil Naharia, who was blamed in the incident, to the district police lines till further orders.
Importantly, the bulk of the 90-plus COVID-19 positive cases in Bhopal are from the state health department staff and the police force.
This is the second time within a week that doctors have come under attack in Madhya Pradesh.
Earlier on April 2, two state government doctors, Dr Zakiya Sayyed and Dr Trapti Khatdhare, and a team of health workers assisting them had come under attack by local residents in Taat Patti Bakhal locality of Indore (one of the COVID-19 containment zones in Indore).
Thirteen men were arrested then and later the National Security Act (NSA) was invoked against four of them.