NEW DELHI:
Regarding a case of sexual harassment of MBBS students at a government medical college of Delhi, Bhimrao Ambedkar Medical College, the Delhi Health Minister, Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj, seeks justice for female medical students who were subjugated to obscenity by an accused professor. The Health Secretary hid the incident from the minister, citing LG’s jurisdiction. Despite the minister’s directive, the Chief Secretary backed the Health Secretary. Numerous doctors were transferred, using the NCCSA meeting as a pretext. The Chief Secretary and Lieutenant Governor’s offices have been shielding the culprits. Minister Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj vows to secure justice for the victimized students.
Delhi’s Health Minister Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj said that on January 31, 2024, a professor at this medical college made obscene remarks to two MBBS students and attempted to touch their private parts. When students complained to their teacher, Professor Dhankar, he asked the students to register their complaint with the principal. The aggrieved students filed their complaints at the principal’s office on February 1, 2024. After lodging the complaint, the students had hoped that perhaps some action would be taken in this matter. This case was also referred to the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), but days passed and no action was taken. Instead of taking action, pressure was exerted on those students to withdraw their complaints by the principal and senior officials of a department from the hospital itself. Disappointed by the lack of action, both students filed their respective FIRs with the police on February 22, 2024.
The Delhi Health Minister said, “I learned about this case through social media on March 18. I immediately called those two students for a meeting. They, along with their seniors and a warden, came to my office and explained the whole incident in detail. After listening to the students, when I spoke to the principal of the medical college, he seemed to protect the guilty professor and instead started accusing the students. Seeing the seriousness of the matter, I immediately wrote a letter to the chief secretary the same day, asking why I had not received the report of the ICC, formed in early February, in this case. Secondly, I asked the chief secretary why, despite informing the health secretary about this case on February 5, as the health minister, I was not informed about it. I also instructed them to immediately suspend the guilty professor and transfer both the principal and his accomplice officers who are pressuring these two students to withdraw their complaints. I demanded a report on this within 24 hours.”
Minister Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj further informed that the report he received from the chief secretary the next day was extremely derogatory and embarrassing. “The chief secretary wrote in the report that the health secretary did not inform the health minister about this case because it falls under services, so there was no need to inform the health minister about this case. Secondly, the chief secretary wrote in the report why the health minister is saying that the ICC report is delayed, while the ICC has 90 days to submit its report, and the ICC is still doing its work. The third thing written in that report was that nearly 1.5 months ago, a file was submitted to the NCCSA for the transfer of this principal. The routine file of the transfer of 17 principals/MSs was sent to the NCCSA. The name of the guilty professor is not even mentioned in that file. There is no mention of this case in that file either,” he added.
“Reading this response left me extremely disappointed. Subsequently, I wrote a letter to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi regarding this matter. I urged the LG to take immediate action in this matter and to transfer all these guilty officials to another place without delay. A doctor or any other health officer or employee is transferred from one place to another using this procedure, and there is no need for NCCSA for this, and the health secretary has the power to use his power to transfer any officer or employee of the health department from one hospital to another, and there is no problem in doing so. I also wrote to the LG that when the police can complete their report within so many days, then why is the ICC taking so long to complete its investigation report?” The Health Minister mentioned.
Minister Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj shared that a complaint was received by the ICC regarding this matter on February 1, the entire month of February passed, 20 days of March have passed, almost 50 days have passed, yet the ICC has not submitted a report in this matter. In this case, two girls are victims, both of their testimonies should be taken, as well as the testimony of the accused professor, and whoever was first informed about this incident should also be testified, based on this, the ICC report could be easily prepared. The ICC report was deliberately not being provided so that pressure could be exerted on those girls to withdraw their complaint, and deliberately the health secretary did not inform me about this case so that no action could be taken in this matter.
The Health Minister further stated, “When no action was seen from the health secretary and the chief secretary in this matter, I was compelled to write this letter to the LG, and the result of that letter was that I heard that the ICC report has come. It is very shameful that I have learned that the accused professor has been given a clean chit by the ICC in the report. I am extremely surprised at what kind of justice is being talked about here, which services department is being discussed. It is very shameful that I am the health minister of Delhi, and such incidents are happening with the girls of my own state in hospitals of my own department, and it is not being told to me by department officials, because this matter belongs to the services department, and you have nothing to do with this matter.
“Through the Media, I urge the LG that the health secretary has the authority, you can immediately detail those guilty officials. I request you to take immediate action against these guilty officials and detail them as soon as possible,” Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj concluded.
