Nagpur: MARD and Indira Gandhi Government Medical College upset over bail of a patient

Maharashtra: After the recent arrest of a patient for physical assault on a resident doctor at Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital (IGGMCH), it is now reported that the said accused has been led out on bail. This news has not gone down well with the resident doctors at the medical college and MARD; who continue to remain concerned about the securing factor in medical college hospitals.

The incident took place last week on Friday, when a patient, 20-year-old Charan Ingole, reported at IGGMCH with abdomen pain. After being asked to wait for some time, as the doctors on duty were attending to another patient, he allegedly lost his cool and slapped the doctor. The matter only got worse when other doctors intervened. The accused resorted to allegedly assaulting other senior doctors at the hospital.

It was only after MARD filed a police complaint that the accused was arrested for his alleged involvement in the matter. However, since he got bail very quickly, the resident doctors association is very upset that an easy bail on a non-bailable offence is a serious issue.

"The Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Protection Act, 2010 under which such offences are registered is a non-bailable one. However, a Supreme Court ruling said that getting bail is possible for any offence whose punishment is less than seven years. Since the imprisonment under the act is only up to five years, it is easy for offenders to walk away easily," said MARD president Dr Sagar Mundhada told TOI.

He also said that since the SC ruling left the MMPPA redundant, MARD had written a letter to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis informing how the act doesn't help dissuade people from assaulting doctors. "We had explained the bad security scenario in government hospitals across the state. We also wrote about how common such assaults on doctors had become in Maharashtra. We had also demanded that the punishment under this act be extended to eight years to give it some teeth," said Dr Mundhada. MARD has not got any response on the topic from the state government till date.

Dr Tushar Patil, the general secretary of MARD IGMCH in addition implied on the matter that the police have confirmed that they have granted bail as per court’s discretion on the matter. Also, legal representation in such cases should be more strong and forthcoming. The concerned institution should not leave it just to students to fight the case in court, but play a more proactive role in comprehending legal aspects of such cases.