Assam Police have arrested 24 persons allegedly involved in the brutal assault on a young doctor at a Covid care centre in Hojai district following the death of a patient on Tuesday afternoon.
The arrested mostly include relatives of the deceased.
The assault had not only left the medical fraternity shocked, hurt and angry but also the general public, reviving memories of the 2019 Dr Deben Dutta lynching case in Jorhat district. One of the convicted was sentenced to death while 24 others received life term in October 2020 for the death of the tea garden doctor.
Social media was abuzz with calls for exemplary punishment to the accused as video of the attack on Dr Seuj Kumar Senapati went viral. The mob could be seen thrashing the doctor with whatever they could lay their hands on. A nurse was also attacked in the attack.
The Hojai police have booked all the accused, including a woman, under the stringent sections of the IPC, including attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy, Disaster Management Act, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and the Assam Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2011.
“We have arrested all of them. They are mostly relatives of the deceased. They hail from nearby areas under the Udali Covid Centre such as Bamun Gaon and Phultoli. An inspector is looking after the case while a senior CID official will be guiding Hojai police in the investigation,” a senior police official said.
The Hojai sessions court on Wednesday remanded seven of the accused in police custody for three days while 14 accused in judicial custody. The court has given police two days to inquire whether three of the accused are minors.
The patient, Giasuddin, who was rushed to the hospital in a critical condition, died around 2pm. His relatives had told the doctor that he was not being able to pass urine since morning.
“I reached the hospital around 1.30pm for my shift. When I went to attend to him after donning my PPE kit, he was already dead,” Dr Senapati said to reporters on Tuesday night.
The attack ensued soon after the attendants accused the medical staff of negligence. The doctor bore the brunt of the attack. The injured nurse had hid herself in a room.
It was Senapati’s second day at the Covid centre. A fresh MBBS graduate, Udali was Senapati’s first posting under the compulsory one-year rural service. He was first admitted to Nagaon Civil Hospital and then referred to the Gauhati Medical College And Hospital.
“He has suffered soft tissue damage and fracture in the nose area. He is stable but yet to come out of the trauma,” a senior IMA said.
The Assam chapter of the IMA held a stock-taking meeting on Wednesday evening and decided to suspend their decision to boycott non-emergency services from Thursday because of the “satisfactory action” taken by the police.
“We have adopted a wait and watch police to see how the investigation progresses. In the interim, we will meet the chief minister and apprise him about our concerns and steps to check a repeat,” the IMA member said.
Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is in Delhi on an official tour, health minister Keshab Mahanta, Assam DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta condemned the incident as intolerable and warned of strong action against those who attack frontline workers.
