The investigation into the death of Dr Payal Tadvi has now been transferred to the Mumbai crime branch. The move to transfer the case from the city police was taken considering the seriousness and importance of it.
On May 22, Payal Tadvi, a post graduate student of gyneacology at Mumbai's BYL Nair hospital, ended her life by hanging herself in her hostel room after she was allegedly discriminated and harassed for her caste by her seniors. She belonged to the Tadvi Bhils, a tribal Muslim community listed under Scheduled Tribes and had made the cut in the ST quota, being the first in her family to become a doctor and the very first in her community to pursue post graduation.
Exactly a year and twelve days before ending her life, Tadvi had shared her happiness of joining Nair hospital as a post graduate student and embarking on the journey to fulfill her dreams. But according to her husband Salman Tadvi and mother Abeda things started going down hill within six to seven months of her joining the course. She was subjected to humiliation with casteist slurs and was denied the opportunity to learn and be at par with her peers.
According to reports, in a conversation with her friend over WhatsApp before she committed suicide, Payal told her friend how she was being tortured by her seniors. "They scream at me in the presence of other doctors and patients. They are giving me a lot of trouble and it's turning out to be unbearable for me," she said.
The three women doctors and Payal's seniors who allegedly subjected her to humiliation—Dr Ankita Khandelwal, Dr Bhakti Mehar and Dr Hema Ahuja—were arrested on Wednesday and booked under sections 306 of IPC (abetment of suicide), Prevention of SC/ST Atrocities Act and Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act and IT Act.
THE WEEK accessed the post-mortem report by Dr Anande ad Dr R.R. Wagh from the J.J. Postmortem Centre, according to which there is an “evidence of a ligature mark on her neck” under provisional cause of death. "There is a high possibility that this may be a murder and not a suicide. The girls might even have killed her before putting the nooze around her and hanging her in the room to show that it's a suicide. She must have been strangulated," said Nitin Satpute, counsel representing the deceased's family. "There is no suicide note. Also, the accused may not have taken the body straight to the hospital and in the interim period there must have been tampering of evidence. It was taken someplace else before it got to the hospital so we cannot really say that it's a suicide. In fact, the police have not even accessed the CCTV footage which can reveal so many things."
Payal's husband Dr Salman Tadvi, who is an assistant professor in a medical college in the state, and mother Abeda allege that the girl was facing mental harassment and casteist slurs from the three senior female doctors at the hospital. It got so unbearable to the point that drove her to end her own life. Dr Ramesh Bharmal, Dean of Nair hospital admits that the authorities received a letter by the girl's parents stating that she be shifted to another room, as she had complained multiple times of mental harassment and wanted to escape it. Salman, Payal's husband too, had made a verbal complaint to Dr ChingLing but that only further strained her relationship with the three girls.
"The matter was discussed with the head of the department of obstetrics and gyneacology, Dr Shirodkar who tackled it at her end. Clearly the room was not changed. But I was not informed about all this and that is the reason we gave a show-cause notice to Dr Shirodkar because the request was not brought to the notice of the dean's office either in written or verbal communication or even to MARD (Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors) and the anti-ragging committee. The Unit Head, Dr. Chingling too was given the notice and was suspended," said Bharmal. It was when the hospital's anti-ragging committee looked into the suicide, it said it was a clear case of ragging and that's when the arrest warrants were issued against all three accused.
According to the FIR filed by the police, Payal had the option of staying with her husband Salman in their rented flat in Byculla, however, she chose to stay in the college hostel citing work pressure and feasibility. She joined BYL Nair hospital on May 1, 2018 and in December, 2018 she called her family stating that the three seniors with whom she shares room with, keep torturing her on some pretext or the other and don't allow her to step inside the operation theatre and don't allow her to do deliveries, which second-year PG students are allowed to do and learn. She even said that the three girls would often threaten to get her out of the college and would pass comments on WhatsApp groups such as, "Payal Bhagaudi hai, use bhagaana chahiye".
Following Payal's death, several protests have taken place outside the campus of Nair hospital demanding justice for the young doctor and an online campaign #JusticeForPayal also started gaining traction. After successfully completing her MBBS from Government Medical College in Miraj, Tadvi went to Sangli for her year-long internship and thereafter came to Nair hospital to pursue her post graduation in gynaecology.
