Docs who prepared report of gang rape victim suspended
BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government on Saturday suspended two post-graduate doctors, who had examined gangrape victim and prepared a report stating that “sex was consensual”, while the senior gynaecologist, who was supposed to oversee their work, has been served with a show-cause notice.
Gandhi Medical College dean Dr MC Songra said decision to suspend Dr Khushbu and Dr Sanyogita was taken as their replies were not satisfactory.
Dr Khushbu had earlier told HT that they have “learnt from their mistake”.
“I had too much work on my hand and rushed through while writing the report and that is how the error crept in,” she told HT. “No one forced me to write the report, but I did not know how to write it correctly, and my English is also weak,” she had said.
The two inexperienced PG students were given the task of preparing the medical report in the sensitive gang rape case of a 19-year-old UPSC aspirant, which they botched up, leading to widespread condemnation.
But, what they did isn’t unusual in hospitals in Bhopal, doctors told HT.
“Senior doctors avoid writing the medical report because invariably when these cases come up in court the defence lawyer cross-examines the doctor who writes the medical report,” a practising gynaecologist said on condition of anonymity.
She said as doctors consider going to court to give evidence as a waste of time, so they make the PG students, who cannot refuse the senior doctors, do the work.
“Ideally, what is being written should be seen by the senior doctors, but they often do not, leading to goof-ups similar to what happened in the gang rape case,” the doctor said.