MUMBAI: A sessions court judge recently adopted a lenient view "in the interest of justice" after holding a woman patient guilty for having slapped thrice a KEM Hospital doctor who allegedly made her wait for a report while she was performing a surgery. The court released the accused, F S Shaikh (54), on a Rs 10,000 good behaviour bond for six months. The woman had barged into a sterile OT and demanded a surgery be stopped too, the doctor had deposed. The doctor said when she finished the surgery and asked the woman waiting outside for the file, she first slapped her thrice. The woman was booked in 2015 under the special 2010 law that prohibits violence against doctors and damage to hospitals and nursing homes.
Judge invokes reformation, says prison not an answer
Additional sessions judge B V Wagh, who conducted the trial, found her guilty for offences under the Indian Penal Code and under the Maharashtra Medical Service Persons and Medicare Service Institution Act (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property) Act, including violence against a doctor and deterring a public servant on duty-the civic hospital doctor.
The January 24 judgment said the "quarrel" between the two happened due to a long wait and while the woman's action was "unacceptable", to maintain peace in society and at a public place like a hospital and invoking reformative principles, imprisonment is not the answer in this case. After being convicted, the woman sought leniency citing her age, innocence and the fact that she has grandchildren and had been falsely framed. Her lawyer, Jamal Khan, said the doctor had spoken to her harshly and sought probation, not imprisonment, which would "jeopardise her future" as the "actual assailant" was another woman patient, who his client was accompanying. He said prosecution had not examined that woman. Prosecution advocate Jotsana Gawali sought punishment appropriate to the crime. The court verdict said the evidence of the informant proves Shaikh's culpability. "The incident pertains to 3.30 hours. The informant- Dr A A Kulkarni of the urology department-vividly narrated the ordeal suffered by her from the accused. How the accused slapped her when she asked to wait for report." She identified the accused and denied the other woman slapped her. Her contention was supported by another doctor who deposed as a witness and threw light on "how the accused, enraged, created ruckus in the operation theatre and when the informant came outside the OT, she was slapped by the accused". The court said the prosecution established the accused slapped the doctor.
READ MORE :
Comments