Mumbai Police crime branch to probe doctor's suicide case

Mumbai Police crime branch will now probe the alleged suicide committed by doctor Payal Tadvi after some of her senior colleagues passed casteist slurs at her at a state-run hospital in Mumbai, an official said Thursday.

Considering the seriousness and importance of the case, the investigation has been transferred to the crime branch, Deputy Commissioner of Police Manjunath Singte said.

Tadvi's lawyer Nitin Satpute said the decision came after they demanded that the case be transferred to the CBI or the crime branch as they felt it was not properly investigated by the Agripada police in Mumbai.

"Wesuspect it to be a case of murder, but the police have not conducted the investigation properly, hence we wanted the case to be transferred to some other probing agency," Satpute said.

Three women doctors - Bhakti Mehere, Hema Ahuja and Ankita Khandelwal - were earlier arrested after their 26-year-old junior colleague Tadvi at the B Y L Nair Hospital in Mumbai allegedly hanged herself at her hostel room last week, according to the police.

Tadvi's family alleged that the doctors taunted her by ragging and hurling casteist abuses as she belonged to a Scheduled Tribe.

READ | All Three Accused Doctors Now Arrested In Dr Payal Tadvi Suicide Case

The accused were booked under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Anti-Ragging Act, IT Act and section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.

They have been remanded in police custody till May 31.

The police told a special court in Mumbai on May 29 that while the mobile phones of the accused were seized, more time was required to recover their WhatsApp chats with the victim.

The police claimed the victim's body had a few injury marks which needed to be probed further. The postmortem report was awaited, they said.

On May 28, Tadvi's parents protested at the hospital in Mumbai where she worked. Other protesters also joined her mother Abeda and husband Salman, demanding stringent action against the three seniors.

The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and other Dalit and tribal organisations also held protests outside the hospital.

Tadvi's mother said her daughter used to tell her about the "torture" she was facing by her seniors on petty issues. 

READ | Payal Tadvi Suicide Case: Akhilesh Yadav Calls Death Of Tribal Medical Student A 'murder' Of Constitutional Protection To Scheduled Tribes