Kerala - Kottayam   

PG students gherao medical college Principal

Staff Reporter

Interrogation of their colleague irks junior doctors

KOTTAYAM: Postgraduate medical students gheraoed Kottayam Medical College Principal N. Sudhaya Kumar on Tuesday for over six hours, demanding legal protection for their colleague, Diana, who has been interrogated by the police in the case of molestation of a student in the School of Medical Education.

The students said the only reason for this was that she had attended to the victim on a directive by the Head of the Department of Psychiatry.

According to them, Dr. Diana had elicited information from the victim about the alleged molestation on the directive of the Head of the Department, as part of her training programme. She was now being interrogated, but people having legal responsibility and authority to represent the department on such issues were being left out. The students did not have any responsibility or authority vis-à-vis medico-legal issues. These were vested with the Medical Officer, Head of the Department and others, they said.

The gherao was an expression of their apprehension following the questioning of Ms. Diana. She was called to the office of the Superintendent of Police in the afternoon and questioned till 8.30 p.m., the students said.

According to them, it was her effort which brought out many aspects of the case. They also took exception to the act of the police taking a student out of the campus without the knowledge and consent of the head of the institution.

The agitating students later got a written certificate from Dr. Sudhaya Kumar to the effect that the postgraduate students and house surgeons were engaging in attending to the patients on the directive of the Medical Officer and no legal responsibilities were vested with them. He had also certified that Dr. Diana had attended to the victim as part of her training programme. The Head of the Department of Psychiatry had also issued a similar certificate at the insistence of the agitating students.

The Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, on Tuesday, joined the agitations being taken out for proper investigation into the case.

Meanwhile, activists of Left students organisations continued their strike for the second day on Tuesday. Mahatma Gandhi University authorities said property on the main campus and the School of Medical Education at Pala were damaged.

The university had decided to reopen the Gandhi Nagar campus of the school on Thursday. According to a press note, all classes will begin that day. Nursing students should be accompanied by their parents, and a parent-teacher meeting has been scheduled for 10.30 a.m.

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PG students gherao medical college Principal

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