Special SC/ST Court Rejects Discharge Plea Of 3 Doctors In Payal Tadvi Suicide Case, Imposes ₹25,000 Fine Each

The special SC ST court has dismissed the discharge plea of three senior doctors, Dr Ankita Khandelwal, Dr Bhakti Mehare and Dr Hema Ahuja of Dr BYL Nair Hospital, who have been booked for abatement to suicide of 26-year-old Payal Tadvi, a second-year medical student. The doctors had filed the discharge pleas in April 2022.

The court has also imposed cost of Rs 25,000 on each of them and said that this would have to be paid to Tadvi'’s family before the next hearing scheduled on June 20. The detailed order will be available in few day. The court said it would being hearing on framing of charges on the next date to begin the trial in the case.

Tadvi, 26, a resident doctor at BYL Nair Hospital, committed suicide on May 22, 2019. Her family alleged that she was driven to take the step because the three accused had harassed her be-cause she was from a tribal community and was a quota student. However, the doctors had in their discharge pleas pleaded that they had no role to play in Tadvi’'s suicide and that she was under stress and was not able to cope up with the workload. The three denied that they had instigated her into committing suicide.They also relied on the WhatsApp chat of the deceased with the complainant and contended that the conversation shows that they did not know Tadvi was from a scheduled tribe.The prosecution and the lawyer for the complainant had both opposed the plea and cited an alleged suicide note recovered by the police and also claimed that there is sufficient evidence to show that Tadvi was being harassed.