Man held for trying to molest doctor at Coimbatore hospital
A 25-year-old man was arrested for attempting to molest a woman surgeon at Coimbatore Medical College, sparking protests from resident doctors over safety issues.
Chennai: A 25-year-old man was arrested for attempting to molest a woman house surgeon at a government hospital in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu, sparking protests from resident doctors over complaints of lack of safe working space in the wake of the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata last week.
The incident took place at the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital on Wednesday night when the accused, identified as Mayank Galar (26) from Madhya Pradesh, approached her, undressed himself and tried to molest her when she was trying to park her two-wheeler in the parking lot near the dean’s office, police said.
“The accused appeared to be mentally unstable during investigation so we will be conducting a psychological test,” a senior police officer said, requesting anonymity. “The hospital staff have seen him near the entrance even a couple of days ago, but they assumed that he may have been a patient’s attender. He was near the parking lot topless. He removed his trousers and we don’t know what his intention was but the doctor has complained that he stretched out his arms towards her.”
The surgeon escaped after pushing the accused and she rushed to the women’s hostel in the campus. Her peers then alerted the hospital security about the incident, and he was found near the casualty ward around 1am on Thursday, leading to his arrest. “We have remanded him and an attempt to molest case has been registered,” said Coimbatore commissioner V Balakrishnan.
Following the incident, around 150 house surgeons practising under the Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) at the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital, caused a stire in front of the Dean’s office on Thursday over demands for better lighting, CCTV surveillance and armed security personnel in the hospital premises. The house surgeons also wore black badges in protest to the hospital on Friday.
“There is no proper lighting inside our government hospital. And we need armed security in the campus,” said one of the protesting resident doctors.
“…There was no lights, and an unknown person approached her, removed his pants and tried to physically abuse her,” the CRMI said in a written complaint to the dean. “The security person also tried to suppress the issue…. For all these years we did not have separate restrooms for doctors in our respective department. We usually use restrooms inside our hostel so we have to go alone to use it.”
In response, dean A Nirmala said that she has instructed the PWD department to address the restroom and street lighting issues. She also confirmed that a few surveillance cameras out of the 200 on the premises were not functioning properly at the time of the incident.
“We revived a complaint that a man tried to molest one of our trainee doctors,” the dean told reporters. “As soon as the administration knew about the incident, we informed the police who arrived at the spot immediately and action is being taken.”
The accused had been under section 74 (assault/criminal force to woman with intent to outrage modesty) of the BNS (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita) and section 4 of the Tamil Nadu prohibition of harassment against women Act.