[dropcap]T[/dropcap]HE Bombay High Court on Friday granted conditional bail to all three accused doctors in Dr Payal Tadvi’s suicide case.
The court granted conditional bail to the accused doctors who had been arrested for allegedly harassing, ragging and abetting the suicide of Dr Tadvi, a fellow doctor at BYL Nair Hospital and Topiwala Medical College.
A member of the Scheduled Tribe community and a second-year postgraduate medical student had committed suicide by hanging herself in her hostel room, on May 22. She was 26.
The three doctors including Hema Ahuja, Bhakti Mehare and Ankita Khandelwal were accused of abetment to suicide and lodged in Byculla Prison. The victim’s family had accused the doctors, who were her seniors at the college, of publically hurling caste abuses at her that pressurised her into taking the extreme step.
A suicide note was later retrieved from Tadvi’s phone in which she had narrated her trauma in detail, explaining how she was discriminated against by her seniors.
On Friday, a single bench of Justice Sadhana Jadhav granted bail and directed the accused to pay Rs 2 lakh each as surety in eight weeks.
“Let them remain in public domain with this stigma and this order,” Justice Jadhav remarked while granting the bail.
Among other conditions, the court directed that license of the three doctors shall remain suspended till the termination of case and they not be allowed to leave Mumbai. The court also barred them from entering their college and asked them to report to the Crime Branch every alternate day.
The accused were arrested and sent to judicial custody on May 31. Charges against them were framed under the Indian Penal Code, Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act, and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
On June 24, their previous bail plea was rejected by the City Civil and Sessions Court following which they had filed an appeal before the High Court on June 29.
