Mumbai: The Mumbai Crime Branch, which is investigating the suicide of the doctor from Nair Hospital, Dr Payal Tadvi, filed a 1,203-page chargesheet on Tuesday against the three accused doctors, Bhakti Mehere, 26, Hema Ahuja, 28, and Ankita Khandelwal, 27, who have been behind bars since their arrest on May 29.
The crime branch has claimed the accused doctors committed offences under the IPC sections of abatement of suicide, destruction of evidence and common intention, and under the section Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the Mahara-shtra Prohibition of Ragging act and the Information Technology Act.
The chargesheet heavily relies on the suicide note found on Dr Tadvi's mobile. In the note, she had said that the three senior doctors were responsible for her suicide and that they had been torturing her for the past one year for various reasons.
The three-page note, written in English, was retrieved by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) from the deceased doctor's mobile. The police have attached a copy of the suicide note to the chargesheet.
As the accused doctors had destroyed the actual note, the police have invoked IPC section 201 pertaining to destruction of evidence against them.
According to the crime branch, Dr Tadvi had photographed the suicide note with her mobile at 5.04pm, shortly after she had received a call from Dr Ahuja at 4.51pm on May 22, lasting for 121 seconds. This was the last call Dr Tadvi received, after which she is reported to have hanged herself.
The statements of Dr Tadvi's colleagues, her seniors, the hospital staff and her family have also been attached to the chargesheet. Also included is the statement of a friend of Dr Tadvi, identified as Snehal. She said she had witnessed the harassment.
The police have also submitted the CCTV footage of the passage leading to Dr Tadvi’s room, which shows the three accused doctors entering her hostel room before she was shifted to the trauma room.
On May 22, Dr Tadvi allegedly hanged herself inside her hostel room at Nair Hospital. She was from Jalgaon and belonged to the Bhil Muslim community. According to her mother, the three senior resident doctors had harassed Payal with caste slurs, driving her to suicide.
