FIR against 5 Doctors for Abetting Suicide of Junior in Jabalpur Medical College

Bhopal: A month after the suicide of 26-year-old Bhagvat Devangan, the Madhya Pradesh police have registered a case against five post-graduate Orthopedics students of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College on charges of abetting the suicide of the fellow junior doctor. Bhagvat died by suicide on October 1 after alleged ragging and assault.

The Jabalpur police have registered an FIR against five doctors—Vikas Diwedi, Subham Shinde, Salman Khan, Aman Gautam, and Abhishek Gautam under section 306 ( Abetment of suicide) and section 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

A day after the suicide took place, Bhagvat’s elder brother Prahlad Devangan alleged that his sibling was mentally and physically harassed by senior doctors in the college and submitted a written complaint to Jabalpur police.

Following the complaint of Prahlad, the police interrogated five fellow students who studied with Bhagvat. During the investigation, they claimed that Bhagvat was being harassed by some senior medical students and could not tolerate it, and subsequently died by suicide.

One of his classmates, Dr Sumit Nahate, in a police statement claimed that seniors used to give corporal punishment inside the operation theatre to Bhagvat, and they often abused him. He further stated that files of the patients were torn by the seniors and Bhagvat was asked to make new ones over the night and was thrashed for taking a bath.

During the investigation, the police have found a WhatsApp group of the first and second year Ortho students wherein the junior students were abused and also given physical punishment.

Following these acts, Bhagvat had first attempted suicide on July 24 with an overdose of ‘amlodipine’. After spending three-four days in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), he was discharged and he went on a month’s long leave, the FIR noted.

The FIR further states that, on October 1, the police recorded that Bhagvat had spoken to Vikas Dubey at around 10:30 am after which he remained mentally disturbed all day and hanged himself at around 5 pm.

Commenting on the incident, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Jabalpur, Gopal Khandel said, “After the prima facie, an FIR has been registered against five medical senior doctors on charges of abetment of suicide. The probe is on.”

Nevertheless, Bhagvat’s brother Prahlad, who seemed unhappy with the police action, said that despite evidence, the police have not involved sections of ragging and assault.

Read More: Family of Dead Jabalpur Doc Alleges Caste Slur, to Meet Chhattisgarh Governor for Action 

“Everything had been done under the nose of college administration and Bhagvat himself made a complaint against the seniors to the anti-ragging committee. But, neither did the administration take any action against the students, nor is the police making them responsible for the suicide,” said Prahlad.

“The college admin is as responsible for my brother’s death as his seniors,” he added.

He further said, “We come from a humble background and struggled to get our brother educated as a doctor, but their acts have destroyed our family. All we can hope for is that the police will conduct an impartial investigation into the matter.”