‘Police gundagardi’: MLNMC resident doctor picked up, held for 2 days; ‘No info,’ say UP cops after protests

MLNMC Prayagraj Row: The fallout of a clash between a group of lawyers and junior doctors at the Moti Lal Nehru Medical College (MLNMC), Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad), last month continues as resident doctors are now up in arms against the two-day-long detention of a postgraduate student from the institute.

The resident doctors’ groups and a relative of the student, who was suspended along with other residents following the violence, alleged that he was picked up from his home in Rampur on Monday morning by what appeared to be plain-clothed police officers without any explanation and was released late on Tuesday night only after a protest by the junior doctors. A Prayagraj Police spokesperson and the college have, however, denied having any information about the alleged detention.

The resident doctors around Uttar Pradesh (UP) staged a strike for a few hours on Wednesday to express their displeasure at the manner in which the doctor was allegedly detained and to press for the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against the lawyers involved in the altercation in May. They resumed work in the afternoon after the Allahabad High Court (HC), in response to Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by the college, instituted a judicial inquiry and stayed another FIR registered by the police against the junior doctors.

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MLNMC student’s ‘detention’

According to the detained student’s elder brother, four policemen had entered their home and dragged the junior doctor away in their vehicle without providing any explanation or revealing their identity to his mother and the sister, who were present at home. Despite a frantic search, the doctor’s family couldn’t locate him until noon the next day, as the local police expressed ignorance about the detention.

The relatives later learnt that the medical student was taken to Prayagraj by the city police for questioning and was brought back to Kemari Police Station in Rampur, from where he was let go. It’s not clear whether an arrest was made or if any specific charges were filed against the doctor.

“We weren’t shown any order or provided any information. The SOG [Special Operations Group] and SP [Superintendent of Police] Rampur didn’t have information either. We weren’t even sure if he was arrested or kidnapped by someone,” said the brother.

AK Singh, a public relations officer at the Prayagraj Police Commissionerate, said he was unaware of the incident. AK Verma, principal of Moti Lal Nehru Medical College, too, lacked any “official” knowledge about it.

Incidentally, the HC on Tuesday had rapped the Prayagraj Police Commissionerate for numerous instances of illegal detentions, as it awarded a Rs 2 lakh compensation for a person held in judicial custody for eight days. The court had observed that the powers vested in Commissioners of Police acting as magistrates were being misused.

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FAIMA, UP RDA support

The matter has been taken up by UP’s Resident Doctors Association (RDA), which, at Tuesday midnight, announced withdrawal of all elective services, including outpatient department (OPD), ward duties and elective surgeries, across the state. In Prayagraj, even emergency services were brought to a halt.

The Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), too, has thrown its support behind the agitating doctors.

“It is deeply concerning that action was taken on the basis of only one side of the dispute, while our institutional FIR has not been registered despite a written complaint being submitted by the principal of the college to concerned authorities,” reads a statement by UP RDA.

The statement is referring to a letter written by the then college principal VK Pandey, who has since been replaced by Verma, to the city police, urging them to register an offence against the attendants of a patient brought for treatment early in the morning of May 20 at the trauma centre of the Swaroop Rani Nehru (SRN) Hospital, attached to the college. The medical college, based on a complaint from emergency junior doctors attending the patients, claimed that the people accompanying the patients abused and behaved rudely with the care providers, and even resorted to violence and destruction of property.

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MLNMC junior doctors booked

While the police are yet to act on the institute’s complaint, they have registered an FIR against unnamed junior doctors based on a complaint from a lawyer accompanying the patient, who had met with an accident. She complained that a junior doctor, who was miffed at being woken up by the patient’s attendants, started abusing. Later, other junior doctors, ganged up to beat the accompanying lawyers, injuring one of them by a surgical blade, the FIR records the complainant as claiming.

Following the incident, the college suspended several junior doctors and constituted a three-member committee to probe the incident. Verma said that the inquiry is still on, without divulging any details. “It would be improper for me to comment as the matter is under judicial consideration,” he said, adding that the college is yet to decide on whether to revoke the students’ suspension.

Meanwhile, the resident doctors have accused the district administration and the police of acting in a partisan manner under the influence of the lawyers. “When we had asked for an FIR, we were advised not to escalate the matter further. The administration had also assured us that the complaint against the doctor would be revoked,” said Vinay Kumar, a former president of RDA at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

The doctor’s detention has further fueled the resentment among medicos who are now planning to move the court against what they see as “gundagardi (thuggery)” of police. The student’s brother, on the other hand, said that he has been severely traumatised by the incident. He is also wondering why his brother is the only one targeted by the administration.

“We had no qualms in cooperating with the police if they had asked to come in for questioning,” he said, adding, “We are a reputed family. When someone is picked up in such a manner, it affects our dignity.”

While UP RDA has resumed medical services after the court order, it's still pressing for a probe into “unlawful and unethical” detention of their fellow resident. They also asked for adequate security measures in hospitals and registration of institutional FIRs in cases of violence against healthcare workers, as mandated by the National Medical Commission (NMC).