Bombay High Court gives custody of the three accused in Payal Tadvi case to Crime Branch

The Bombay High Court has given custody of the three accused doctors in the Payal Tadvi suicide case to the Crime Branch.

Payal Tadvi, a 2nd-year postgraduate student at Nair Hospital in Mumbai, had committed suicide on May 22 after allegedly facing harassment at the hands of three final year senior doctors. She was found hanging in her hostel room. Her family had said she was tired of being harassed by three of her seniors who targeted her as she belonged to Scheduled Tribes.

READ: Justice For Dr Payal Tadvi: Family Alleges Slow Investigation Of Suicide Over Alleged Casteist Slurs By Three Seniors At Nair Hospital, Claims Murder Angle

"From the beginning, she’s been harassed over caste. She’s been assaulted. From the beginning, she was going through mental pressure.  We have a complaint to hospital administration but no action has been taken. We want government to intervene, the police is not taking any action. It is possible Payal was murdered by the 3 women doctors," revealed Payal's father.

The police reports say that as a result of casteists slurs being hurled at her, Payal was suffering from acute depression which led her to commit suicide

Her death gave rise to an uproar in Mumbai following which protests began to be staged since May 27 outside the Nair Hospital in Mumbai. The head of its Gynaecology department of the Nair hospital, Dr. Yi Ching Ling was also suspended.

While a letter written by the three accused - Bhakti Mehere, Hema Ahuja and Ankit Khandelwal - stated that the suicide was carried out to excess workload, an anti-ragging committee formed  by the BYL Nair Hospital administration to probe into the matter proved after conducting a series of interviews with the students and staff that Payal Tadvi was indeed a victim of harassment.

"If heavy workload is given name of ragging, then we all have been ragged or ragging someone while performing our basic duties. We want to conduct a fair investigation to give justice," the letter reads.

The accused were taken into custody on May 28 and 29, however, with the Crime branch’s failure to provide evidence against the three accused, the court on May 31 sent the three accused to judicial custody till June 10.

READ: One Out Of The Three Accused Doctors In Dr. Payal Tadvi Suicide Case Arrested

Mumbai police crime branch, on Tuesday, approached the Bombay High Court seeking fresh custody of the accused doctors as it did not get a chance to interrogate them as the case was handed over to them when the three accused were remanded in judicial custody.