GMC Surat medico suicide: Panel confirms ragging of 9 resident doctors in Microbiology dept, finds no direct link to death

Surat: The anti-ragging committee of Government Medical College (GMC), Surat, has confirmed that first-year resident doctors in the microbiology department were subjected to ragging, but found no direct link between the ragging and the suicide of the resident doctor.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that a first-year postgraduate medical student in the Department of Microbiology at GMC Surat allegedly died by suicide by hanging from the ceiling of his PG hostel room.

The student had reportedly faced mental harassment and ragging by four senior doctors. He had joined GMC Surat in February after securing admission to the MD Microbiology programme. As a first-year postgraduate student, he was assigned emergency duty at New Civil Hospital and was scheduled to be on duty on August 9. However, he ended his life on the same day.

Following the incident, Gujarat Health Minister Praful Panseriya ordered an internal inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his death. The committee reportedly found evidence that the doctor had been mentally harassed and ragged by four senior resident doctors. Following the findings, the four senior doctors were suspended for six months from the hospital, the hostel, and all teaching and academic activities.

After their suspension, the college administration issued show-cause notices to four faculty members including the Head of the Microbiology Department, for alleged inaction.

Now, the anti-ragging committee of the medical college has investigated the incident and found the allegations that first-year residents were subjected to verbal abuse and humiliation by some second-year resident doctors to be true.

TOI has reported that the inquiry found such behavior fell under the definition of ragging as per the National Medical Commission's (NMC) anti-ragging regulations.

The inquiry also found that all nine first-year resident doctors in the microbiology department had faced ragging. The report further noted that the junior residents were also handling an excessive workload.

However, the committee said it could not establish that ragging directly led to the doctor's death. It observed that there could have been multiple factors behind his decision to take the extreme step. It also noted that no prior official complaint regarding the ragging had been received by the institution.

The findings were part of a report submitted by the GMC dean to Veer Narmad South Gujarat University (VNSGU) on Wednesday evening.

During the inquiry, statements were recorded from the head of the microbiology department, faculty members, junior and senior resident doctors, technicians and other staff. The report said some faculty members had attempted to improve communication between the two groups and resolve the dispute.

Also read- GMC Surat medico suicide: 'Nayi naveli dulhan' remark, 4 faculty issued show-cause notice over alleged inaction on ragging

The report contains excerpts from statements, documentary evidence, observations of the inquiry committee and details of the sequence of events, including meetings of various committees and the investigation process.

The VNSGU anti-ragging committee is now expected to conduct its own inquiry. It is likely to record statements from students, faculty members and other stakeholders before reaching its conclusions.

FIR registered

Police registered a FIR against four resident doctors of the GMC in Gujarat's Surat on Tuesday for their alleged involvement in the ragging of the deceased doctor.

The accused students were suspended from the institute for six months on Monday after the institute's anti-ragging committee found them involved in harassing 10 first year students, including the doctor.

The accused were booked under sections 127 (2), 352 and 54 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) pertaining to wrongful confinement, intentional insult and abettor present at the scene of the crime, the police official told PTI.

GMC Dean, Dr Jayesh Brahmbhatt said that an FIR was registered at the Khatodra police station against the four students found guilty by the institute's anti-ragging committee following an incident of ragging in the institute's microbiology department so that further legal action can be taken.

As per the complaint, second-year resident doctors are not permitted to assign any tasks to first-year resident doctors. Despite this, the accused students had been harassing 10 first-year residents of the institute's microbiology department for quite some time.

These four doctors subjected 10 of them, including the deceased doctor, to humiliation and verbal abuse and lodged false complaints with the faculty, alleging that they were not performing their duties.

On August 5, the seniors summoned these first-year students to the microbiology department's serology lab via WhatsApp messages.

They detained them there illegally for two hours, subjecting them to continuous mental harassment and humiliating them with crude remarks, stated the police complaint by the institute.

A high-level committee formed on Sunday to look into the matter had also issued show-cause notices to the microbiology department head, and three other faculty members.

The anti-ragging committee had held a marathon meeting from 8.30 pm on Sunday to 4 am Monday, recording statements of senior resident doctors, faculty members, technicians and cleaners of the microbiology department based on complaints of nine first-year resident doctors and the father of the deceased.

According to the committee, there was no evidence of physical abuse or that death resulted from such abuse.

Also read- GMC Surat MD Microbiology medico allegedly commits suicide, 4 doctors suspended for ragging