Three doctors from Dr BYL Nair Hospital, booked for allegedly abetting the suicide of a second-year medical student, Payal Tadvi, five years ago, intentionally filed their discharge applications and kept them pending for years to prolong the trial, the special SC and ST court has observed.
Special judge SM Tapkire, on May 29, rejected their discharge pleas on May 29 and imposed a cost of Rs25,000, for which the detailed order was made available on Saturday.
In the detailed order, the court said, “Prima facie, the accused – Dr Ankita Khandelwal, Dr Bhakti Mehare and Dr Hema Ahuja – were aware that sufficient material is available against them to proceed further. However, they intentionally sought regular adjournments and filed their discharge applications on April 7, 2022 (Mehare and Khandelwal) and April 18, 2022 (Ahuja) to prolong the matter.”
While imposing the cost, the court said that the considerable amount is required to be saddled to deprecate the practice of raising discharge applications despite the knowledge that sufficient considerable material is available against the accused.
The court said that the investigation machinery has recorded statements of more than 274 witnesses and collected / seized huge record material, including electronic evidence. “As the medical student who died by suicide was junior, aged 26 years, the necessary opportunity is required to be given to the prosecution and complainant to prove their grievance. The probable defence of the accused that the deceased was under mental stress and unable to cope with her academic work and duties could not be considered at this stage. However, records reveal sufficient material with regard to accusations against the doctors to frame charges for the alleged crime.”
