Doctor Kills Herself Over Casteist Slurs From Seniors // Adivasi Professor Arrested For Facebook Post On Right To Eat Beef
Writers and activists
are demanding justice after Payal Tadvi, a resident doctor studying gynaecology
at the BYL Nair Hospital in Mumbai, was found hanging in her hostel room on 22
May. Tadvi’s family has
accused the hospital management of not taking action as she was being harassed
by three senior doctors for belonging to a lower caste. “Whenever she used to
speak to me on phone, she would say, ‘These three (senior doctors) people
torture her as I belongs to a tribal community, use casteist slurs on her.’ We
want justice for her,” Tadvi’s mother Abeda told ANI. Abeda Tadvi,
mother of Payal Tadvi, a PG student of Gynaecology who committed suicide on May
22: Whenever she used to speak to me on a call, she would say 'these (3 senior
doctors) people torture me as I belong to a tribal community, use casteist
slurs.' We want justice for her
On 23 May, the
Agripada police registered a case against Dr Hema Ahuja, Dr Bhakti Mehar and Dr
Ankita Khandilwal under relevant sections of the IPC, SC/ST Atrocities Act,
Anti-Ragging Act and Information Technology Act, 2000, the Hindustan Times reported. Abeda said Payal had
called her crying about the harassment at the hospital. “On May 10, my
daughter called me. She was crying and told me about the harassment she had
been facing. I was rattled and wrote a complaint the same night. On May 13, I
went to the dean to hand over the letter but we were not allowed to go in,”
Abeda told HT. Abeda told NDTV that the hospital’s management had told
the family they would look into the matter, but refused to give any assurance
in writing.
However, the
hospital’s dean Ramesh Bharmal denied the allegations and said they had not
received any complaints. “Dr Payal’s mother’s claims that she had complained to
the hospital about the alleged torture being meted out to her daughter are not
true. We have received no complaint till date regarding this issue,” Bharmal
told the news channel... read more:
Adivasi Professor Arrested For Facebook Post On Right To Eat Beef
Jeetrai Hansda, a professor at the Government School and College for Women, Sakchi, in Jharkhand was arrested on Saturday. A lawyer from the team handling Hansda’s case told HuffPost India that a complaint was filed against him in June 2017 based on a Facebook post he had written.
However, he was
finally arrested yesterday. The lawyer, who did not want to be named, said he
suspected the arrest was made after the elections were over so that the BJP did
not anger the Adivasis and lose their votes before the polls. The BJP won 12 of
the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand this year, same as 2014. The government at
the state is also led by the BJP under Raghubar Das.
A diary was filed
against Hansda’s Facebook post in 2017 and after ‘investigating’ the complaint,
inspector Anil Kumar Singh of Sakchi police station lodged the FIR. Hansda’s
lawyer said that though he was asked to appear in the police station, he wasn’t
arrested back then. He was only arrested yesterday and continues to be in
police custody. Hansda had also moved for anticipatory bail, which was
rejected. Hansda is a prominent
Adivasi activist and theatre artist and his Facebook post asserted his
community’s right to eat beef.
The FIR lodged at the
Sakchi police station in Jamshedpur, stated that Hansda had written a Facebook
post asserting that the adivasi community in India has had a long tradition of
eating beef and ceremonial cow sacrifice. It is their democratic and cultural
right to consume the meat, he said. The post also said that they oppose India’s
laws on eating beef and that his community also consumes peacocks, the
country’s national bird. He also expressed his unwillingness to follow Hindu
customs.
He was booked under
sections 153 (A), 295A, 505 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for insulting
religious feelings and attempts to promote enmity between groups of
people. .. read more: