24 ARRESTED FOR ASSAULTING DOC IN ASSAM COVID CARE CENTRE

GUWAHATI The Assam police on Wednesday arrested 24 people for assaulting a doctor at a Covid Care Centre in Hojai district following the death of a patient a day earlier.

“Twenty-four culprits involved in this barbaric attack have been arrested and the charge sheet will be filed at the earliest. I am personally monitoring this investigation and I promise that justice will be served,” chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted.

A video of the incident shot on a mobile phone purportedly shows the group of people hitting the doctor with a broom, utensils and kicking him while he lay on the ground. The video went viral on social media.

Indian Medical Association President Dr JA Jayalal on Wednesday expressed anguish over the incident in which a doctor was assaulted in Assam’s Hojai district and demanded that the Central Government should declare hospitals as a “protective zone”. “Indian Medical Association and the whole fraternity of the country are saddened and anguished to see the brutal attack on the young and vibrant doctor Dr Seuj Kumar Senapati. This is the time government should do something to save the morale and health of doctors. Otherwise, the morale of doctors will go down and they will not try to take any serious cases,” Dr Jayalal said.

On Tuesday, the Hojai unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) threatened to boycott outpatient department services in hospitals in the district if the accused were not nabbed before 7am on Wednesday. Following directions from Sarma, the accused were arrested around 4am on Wednesday.