Mumbai: Five years after Dr Payal Tadvi’s suicide, allegedly driven by harassment and caste-based discrimination by her seniors at BYL Nair Hospital, the prosecution recently filed a plea before the special trial court to include Dr Yi Ching Ling, the then faculty head, as an additional accused in the case. Currently, doctors Hema Ahuja, Bhakti Mehare, and Ankita Khandelwal, — all Tadvi’s seniors — are on trial for abetting her suicide and committing caste-based atrocities.
The prosecution contended that Ling, despite receiving complaints about the harassment, failed to take appropriate action. Instead, it’s alleged that she encouraged the accused and indirectly contributed to the tragic outcome.
Referring to witness statements, the plea submitted by Special Public Prosecutor Pradip Gharat said, “The statement shows that except warning, the proposed accused Dr Ching Ling, did nothing. She refused the request of the deceased and her relatives to change the unit of the deceased. As a result of her acts of omission to take proper steps in spite of the knowledge of torture and harassment, the said ragging, ill-treatment, harassment and torture of the deceased by the chargesheeted accused was increased to such a level that the deceased died by suicide.” The plea submitted on Nov 13 said that Ling should be booked for abetment of the offence under section 109 of the Indian Penal Code. The matter was adjourned to Dec 11 for arguments on the plea.
In 2019, the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (MSHRC) investigated the matter and found no specific lapses in the handling of complaints by Ling and SD Shirodkar. However, the commission questioned the lack of action by Tadvi’s husband and mother in reporting the issue to the anti-ragging committee. MSHRC took suo motu cognisance of the allegations that Tadvi’s unit head Ling and department head Shirodkar failed to act on the complaints of harassment against three resident doctors.
Tadvi hanged herself in her hostel room at BYL Nair Hospital, Mumbai Central, on May 22, 2019. In its Dec 20, 2019 order, the panel said there were no grounds for human rights violation as the teachers took adequate steps. However, in the recent plea, Gharat cited the reports of the Ragging Prevention Committee and Topiwala National Medical College (BYL Nair Hospital) committee, who, he said, unanimously came to the conclusion about the acts of omissions by the proposed accused.
Abeda Tadvi, Payal’s mother and complainant in the case, stated in the FIR that she and her niece, Asha Tadvi, met Ling to report the harassmentbut Ling dismissed their concerns, claiming such incidents were common in the institute. Abeda further told police that when she insisted on a stronger response, Ling reportedly refused to intervene. Furthermore, Tadvi informed her mother that Ling called her and the accused the following day. It was alleged that instead of reprimanding the accused, Ling allegedly sided with them.
Ling, in a previous interview with TOI, said she had summoned Tadvi, another batchmate, and three seniors. The seniors told her how juniors, including Tadvi, were not working properly. Following that meeting, Ling claimed to have asked Tadvi during two instances if the issues with the seniors were sorted out, to which she allegedly gave a positive response.