A sessions court showed leniency to a 51-year-old woman it found guilty of repeatedly slapping a resident doctor attached to KEM hospital’s urology department in 2015, having lost patience while waiting for a report.
The court considered that the quarrel between the woman and the lady doctor took place due to a long wait for a report and that the woman was a patient and could not control herself, which resulted in the incident. At the same time, it noted that though her behaviour was not acceptable, she has no other cases against her. Additional Sessions judge BV Wagh said in his judgment that if she is sentenced to suffer imprisonment, she and her family will suffer agonies in the future too.
The court said having anxiously considered these aspects, it is of the opinion to take a lenient view in the interest of justice. “From the angle of society, principle of reformation of offender and peace and tranquillity in society as well as in public place like hospital, imprisonment can never be an option in the present case,” it stated.
It directed her to furnish a bond of Rs. 10,000 of good behavior for six months with an undertaking that she will not involve in any criminal activity. In this duration, if she violates the undertaking, she would have to serve time in prison for a month.
In the incident that took place on Aug 6, 2015, the woman Farida Shaikh, a Sakinaka resident, who was having difficulty passing urine, had grown impatient while waiting for a report. As per the doctor Anagha Kulkarni’s complaint, she had barged into an operation theatre when she was in a surgery and had demanded the report. She had even demanded that the doctor immediately stop the surgery to give her report. Shaikh was asked to wait. She had stormed off after forcibly taking her file. Outside the operation theatre, she slapped the resident doctor thrice on the face when the doctor asked her to give her file so she could prepare the report.
Shaikh’s advocate had sought leniency to her on grounds of her age and had explained that she was having difficulty passing urine and hence the incident had taken place on the spur of the moment.
