The Commissionerate Police (Cuttack-Bhubaneswar) on Tuesday arrested a doctor of the SCB Medical College and Hospital on charges of rape.

The accused has been identified as Dr Dilbagh Singh Thakur. Cuttack’s SCB Medical College is among the premier medical institutions of Odisha.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cuttack) Anil Mishra told The Telegraph: “We have arrested the doctor on charges of rape. He has been forwarded to the court. The doctor has been identified as Dilbagh Singh Thakur, 33. He hails from Madhya Pradesh.”

It has been alleged that the accused, a senior resident doctor working at the cardiology department of the SCB Medical College and Hospital, sexually assaulted two patients when they came to the hospital for an Electrocardiogram (ECG) on Sunday.

The two victims went one by one for the ECG test, and during the test, the doctor allegedly sexually exploited the victims. When the victims discussed the issue with each other after coming out from the ECG room, they found the doctor guilty. One of the victims’ relatives is an undergraduate student at the
SCB hospital.

Later, the doctor was beaten up in the hospital and had to be admitted to the ICU. Some of the assaulters were undergraduate students.

As the issue snowballed into a major controversy, the state government on Tuesday constituted a three-member committee to probe the allegations of misconduct by the resident doctor of the SCB.

The committee comprises the Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET) Prof Santosh Kumar Mishra, superintendent SCB Medical College and Hospital and dean and principal SCB Medical College, Sudhansu Sekhar Mishra and Joint DMET, Prof Roma Rattan.

“The committee will undertake a detailed inquiry into the allegations and recommend appropriate action the government,” a notification issued by the health and family welfare department said.

The police would verify
the CCTV footage and try to ascertain what was the urgency to go for the ECG on Sunday. It is also trying to find out whether there was any lady nurse present during the ECG or not.

Earlier, social activist Jayanta Das had said: “We do have all respect for the doctors’ community. It must be a rarest of rare case where charges of sexual exploitation have come against the doctor of the SCB Medical College. The accused doctor has been admitted to the ICU of the SCB only to avoid the arrest. It’s a deliberate tactic by the police to calm down the situation.”

Das also questioned why the SCB authorities remained silent on the issue. “The utter silence maintained by the SCB Medical authority speaks a lot,” Das added.

The incident comes at a time when doctors in different parts of the country are agitating on the issue of security at the workplace following the rape and murder of a lady doctor in Calcutta.