KOCHI: Central police on Sunday booked the former head of Ernakulam General Hospital’s department of general medicine on charges of sexual harassment. The FIR was registered on a complaint lodged by a woman doctor, who is now based in Dubai.
The incident came to light following a recent Facebook post by the woman doctor, who claimed the incident took place in February 2019, when she was pursuing house surgery at the hospital. The complainant said the doctor tried to kiss her forcibly in his consultation room around 7 p.m. He was the coordinator of the house surgency programme at the time of the alleged incident.
Police urged the woman's doctor to submit a statement to initiate a probe into the incident. With the doctor settled abroad, police contacted her through email, requesting her to submit a response to the complaint lodged by the superintendent of the hospital on September 1.
“The woman doctor filed her complaint and statements through email on Sunday morning and a case was registered,” officers said, adding that an inquiry is on.
Hospital authorities had initiated action after she sent an email to the directorate of health services and the hospital superintendent. The accused doctor is practising in another hospital in Ernakulam district. In her FB post, the woman doctor cited insecurity as the reason behind the delay in filing the complaint. “I was in the middle of my internship. I didn’t lodge any complaints as he was senior and could sabotage my internship certification. I was scared,” the post added.
“I want to expose the predator and make sure everyone knows about his acts. The woman doctors, including myself, whom he abused, should get justice. Such doctors are a disgrace to society and must not be allowed to practise,” it read.