Days after a video surfaced of a man assaulting a doctor in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram district, another attack has allegedly taken place against a doctor in the same district. The incident happened at the Gokulam Medical Centre at Attingal in Thiruvananthapuram district. A woman doctor was allegedly abused and attacked by two men at the hospital on the night of August 14. According to police, the men abused the doctor verbally and threw slippers at her.
The men, Sebin and Anas, both residents of Attingal came to the hospital seeking treatment as one of them was injured. The men were allegedly in an inebriated condition and they are said to have started verbally abusing the doctor after she reportedly asked one of them to remove their footwear while entering a sterile area inside the hospital. Following this, the men allegedly threw slippers at the doctor. Attingal police arrested the duo on Sunday morning.
"One of the men was injured and was taken to the procedure room for treatment. Since it was a sterile area, the doctor asked him to remove his footwear. He started to shout and abuse the doctor verbally. The miscreant even went on to throw his slipper at the doctor, but it landed on the nurse. When we called police to the spot they ran away," an official of the hospital told TNM. Following this, on Sunday morning, the police arrested the accused men. "The incident was very traumatising for the young doctor," the official added.
The men have been charged under section 294 (b) (sings, recites or utters any obscene song, ballad or words, in or near any public place) of the Indian Penal Code and under sections pertaining to the prohibition of violence of Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act.
Over the last few months, there have been multiple instances where doctors have been attacked in the state. On August 7, a woman doctor at Fort Taluk hospital in Thiruvananthapuram was attacked by two men in a similar manner. A video of the men hurling abuses at the doctor, with one of them saying they 'would have pinned her to the wall if she was a man', surfaced on social media.
On August 3, in a government hospital in Parassala, four men who were allegedly drunk attacked a doctor who asked them to follow COVID-19 protocol.
Earlier, in July, a doctor at a primary health centre in Alappuzha's Kainakary was allegedly assaulted by a few CPI(M) members in the region. The doctor, Dr Sarathchandra Bose had filed a complaint against them. On May 14, a doctor working at Mavelikkara district hospital was assaulted by a police officer. The officer's mother, a COVID-19 patient, was brought dead to the hospital. Kerala Government Medical Officers Association protested against this by boycotting outpatient duties on June 25.