Sion Hospital doctor assault case: 2 acquitted due to lack of evidence

Mumbai: With no strong evidence to prove the crime, the Sessions Court of Maharashtra recently relieved two persons, including a senior citizen, by acquitting them from charges of assaulting an on-duty doctor at a Sion hospital in Mumbai.  

The judge passed an order acquitting the father-son duo accused following the failure of the prosecution to prove their argument with proper evidence. Therefore, the duo have been released on bail. 

While delivering the verdict, the court said, “There is an inordinate delay in recording statements of eyewitnesses. There is also an inordinate delay in giving the report. Investigating officer has not collected CCTV footage. The oral evidence of the informant (doctor) is not supported by medical evidence. It is thus held that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove all charges against the accused,” the court said.

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Highlighting the loopholes in the case, the court said that the statements of the four witnesses, including the doctor, a nurse who said she had not seen the actual incident, another staffer and the investigating officer, were inconsistent, which does not provide a clear picture of the assault of the doctor. 

Although the prosecutors of the doctor (victim) presented the medical report, which showed that the doctor had suffered from facial trauma and that he had no intention to falsely implicate the two accused, the court stated that there was not enough evidence to convict the accused. 

In addition, the court said that the hospital staffer had not stated specific acts committed by the accused. It added that while the incident took place in August 2014, the statements were recorded only in January 2015 and the FIR too was recorded after more than 11 hours. The court also said that while the doctor claimed that he had gone to the police station immediately after the incident, the police report showed that the FIR was recorded only at 8.25 pm.

The history of the incident goes back 9 years now, on August 13, 2014, when the father-son duo allegedly assaulted the doctor over filling up a form of health scheme. The accused father approached the doctor two times but was refused since the doctor was busy with his duty. Later, the accused father's son, who was admitted to the hospital also got involved and started an argument with the doctor. Following this, the duo allegedly assaulted and abused the doctor reports The Indian Express.

The doctor then lodged a complaint with the Sion police under sections 353 (use of force against a public servant), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from duty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with relevant sections of the Maharashtra Medical Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions Act, 2010 against the duo. 

The court said, “The alleged incident of assault took place in the hospital. However, investigating officer has not recorded the statement of any independent witness. The medical certificate was not clear as to when the medical officer examined the doctor."

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