Parents of 26-year-old doctor Payal Tadvi who ended her life, allegedly after casteist slurs by her senior colleagues on Tuesday protested at the state-run hospital in Mumbai where she worked. Other protesters also joined Tadvis mother Abeda and husband Salman who demanded "strictest action" against the three seniors who allegedly drove her to end her life by "torturing her by ragging and hurling casteist abuses at her. All pictures/Bipin Kokate
Updated On: 2019-05-28 12:57 PM IST
The mother of Dr. Payal Salman Tadvi, who committed suicide on May 22 staged a protest in front of Nair hospital in south Mumbai. Abeda Tadvi, mother of Dr. Payal Salman Tadvi, who committed suicide on May 22, claimed that three senior doctors at Nair Hospital tortured her daughter, and unable to bear this, she committed suicide. "Whenever she used to speak to me on call, she would say 'these (3 senior doctors) people torture me as I belong to a tribal community, use casteist slurs.' We want justice for her," Abeda said
Protesters belonging to the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and other Dalit and tribal organisations are holding protests outside the BYL Nair Hospital in Mumbai over Tadvi's death. "We want the government to intervene. The police are not taking any action. It is possible that Payal was murdered by the three women doctors," Salman said
Expressing solidarity with the protesters and with Tadvis family, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad said he would visit Maharashtra if needed to "fight for justice for our younger sister. The Maharashtra State Commission for Women has also taken cognisance of the matter and issued a notice to the hospital authorities demanding a reply within eight days on the action taken to implement the anti-ragging law
The three women doctors at the hospital accused of driving Tadvi to suicide have sought a "fair probe" in the case. In a letter to the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), the three Ankita Khandelwal, Hema Ahuja and Bhakti Mehare said they want the college to conduct a fair investigation in the matter and "give justice" to them. "This is not the way to do an investigation through police force and media pressure, without hearing our side," the three doctors said in the letter
MARD has suspended the three doctors. We have credible inputs that the three doctors made casteist remarks against Dr. Payal Tadvi, who allegedly committed suicide. We will cooperate with the police for further investigation, a senior MARD official said. Tadvi committed suicide on May 22. Her family has alleged that the doctors taunted her for belonging to a Scheduled Tribe.
