A few days ago, an Ayush doctor, identified as Sachin Panjarkar, allegedly tried to molest a woman patient at a COVID-19 care centre in Aurangabad, which raised a question over the safety of women.
BJP MLA Manisha Chaudhary voiced this issue in the state Legislative Assembly. She said incidents of rape of women in COVID-19 care centres are not new. “Such cases are unfortunate. We demand an immediate response from the state Home Minister,” the MLA said.
Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis said he had written four letters to the chief minister on the rise in incidents of crime against women in COVID-19 care centres and sought standard operating procedures (SOPs) to curb them. However, no response to the letters have been received nor SoPs were published, claimed former CM.
Responding to this, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday, March 4, said the doctor has been dismissed from service after a preliminary report. Moreover, the SOPs for such facilities will be issued by this month-end, i.e March 31.
The woman is not ready to complain for fear of her identity being revealed. The doctor and her husband are friends. Strict action will be taken after completion of the inquiry, said Pawar.
What is the incident?
The AMC had appointed Ayush doctors, including Panjarkar, in May 2020. He was serving at Padampura COVID care centre (CCC). The 25-year-old woman was admitted to the CCC on February 23 and was supposed to be given discharge on March 5. However, the lady was insisting on giving discharge at the earliest. Panjarkar contacted the lady on her mobile phone and told her to come into his cabin to prepare the discharge papers on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday at 2 am. As the day broke, the woman in her complaint to the AMC administration accused Panjarkar of attempting to rape her. Hence, she demanded action against him. However, in fear of getting her name maligned, she did not dare to lodge the police complaint so far.
The municipal commissioner and the municipal officer of health (MoH) deployed a medical officer Dr Manisha Bondwe to probe the allegations. She submitted her report today morning, March 5. She stated that the Ayush doctor Sachin Panjarkar is seen trying to develop closeness with the lady patient in the CCTV footages. She held Panjarkar guilty on the basis of information provided by the victim and the evidence produced by her relatives. After going through the report, the municipal commissioner A K Pandey immediately dismissed the contractual doctor.
The accused Panjarkar was on one month's leave for his marriage and had joined his duties two days ago. The news of the doctor's dismissal spread like wildfire in the city. A rumour started to spread in the city that Panjarkar had committed suicide. However, the police met him and obtained the details of the whole incident.
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