MARD has assured the HC that they will announce withdrawal of the stir on the issue after a meeting
Mumbai : The Bombay High Court on Friday asked striking doctors of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) to call off their strike immediately, following which its president assured that they would hold a meeting on Friday itself and announce withdrawal of the stir. Meanwhile the state government informed the court that three policemen involved in an attack on a doctor in Solapur had already surrendered.
Government pleader Prajakta Shinde informed Chief Justice Mohit Shah, who held a special sitting in the court on Friday to hear the matter, that the police inspector and two constables had surrendered before a Solapur Judicial Magistrate First Class who had granted them interim bail.
Nearly 4,000 resident doctors in Maharashtra went on an indefinite strike on Thursday demanding suspension of policemen who allegedly attacked their colleague on December 31.
Taking suo motu cognisance of the strike, the court had on Thursday issued notices to the state government and MARD.
Dr Santosh Waghchore, president of MARD, on Friday assured the
court that MARD would call off its stir on the issue.
However, the Chief Justice asked MARD to call off the strike immediately, following which its president assured that they would hold a meeting on Friday itself and announce withdrawal of the stir.
According to doctors, three policemen had forced a doctor who was busy with an emergency case at Solapur government hospital to attend to a pregnant woman who was in labour. When the doctor asked them to take the lady to the gynaec department, the policemen assaulted him.
The court questioned the police and government as why no action had been taken against the errant cops despite having CCTV footage of the alleged incident.
The court noted that the authorities had CCTV footage of the incident and a prima facie cognisable case was made out against the guilty under Maharashtra Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institution Act 2010.
“It appears that the accused themselves are police officers and the concerned police authorities as well as the investigation officer have not invoked section 4 (which prescribes punishment up to three years imprisonment and fine up to Rs 50,000) of the Act,” said Chief Justice Mohit Shah.
“There is no dispute over the issue that a doctor had been assaulted by policemen at government medical college in Solapur,” he said.
After being informed by the government that the case had been
transferred to CID the court said that action should be taken against the errant cops immediately.
“In view of the above incident, police officers can arrest the guilty even before the case is transferred to state CID. Once provisions of the Act are invoked and also because CCTV footage implicates the guilty, there is no justification for not taking action against the accused,” the judge added.
The court directed the Deputy Commissioner of police in Solapur to take action against the guilty under the relevant provisions.
Staff Reporter
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