Vadodara: 12 arrested for assaulting doctors at SSG hospital

Vadodara: Twelve persons have been arrested for allegedly assaulting doctors and staff at the postmortem department of Sir Sayajirao General (SSG) Hospital, Vadodara, police said. The incident took place after relatives of a deceased woman discovered her body in a severely decomposed condition.

According to the news reports, those arrested include four women relatives and the two sons of the deceased. The accused have been booked for assaulting government officials on duty and under the Gujarat Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property) Act, 2012.

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The case was registered at Raopura Police Station based on a complaint filed by a medico-legal officer, who was among those allegedly attacked.

Police said three men were arrested on Wednesday night, while the remaining accused—including four women—were taken into custody on Thursday. All were produced before a court the same evening. Authorities sought remand for four male accused, of whom three were granted one-day police custody.

Speaking to the Indian Express, Raopura Police Inspector DJ Patel said, “We arrested three men on Wednesday night after the SSG officials lodged the FIR. The others, including four women, were arrested on Thursday. We will not seek remand for the women accused and it is up to the court to send them to judicial custody or grant them bail as per the provisions of the Gujarat Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property) Act, 2012.” Patel added that the four other accused booked in the FIR had been “rounded up” and the process for their formal arrest was underway.

The incident occurred around 8:30 am on Wednesday when the family arrived at the hospital morgue to claim the body of the deceased, who had died on April 27. The body had been preserved in the hospital’s cold storage as one of her sons was travelling from the United States to attend the funeral.

According to the FIR, tensions escalated after the family found the body in a “severely decomposed” condition. The complaint alleges that an angry group of relatives dragged a woman doctor from the morgue to the medico-legal officer’s office, verbally abused her, and physically assaulted other staff members. The doctor’s shirt was also allegedly torn during the scuffle.

The FIR lodged at Raopura police station states that, along with the medico-legal officer, a woman doctor posted at the post-mortem department, who hails from Bihar, was allegedly dragged from the morgue to the office of the MLO by the group, while abusing and threatening her. Another staff member and a senior resident doctor were also allegedly assaulted, and his shirt was “torn” by the group.

Relatives of the deceased have alleged that hospital staff failed to provide a satisfactory explanation for the condition of the body and behaved in a “rude and dismissive manner” when questioned. They also raised concerns over the body being moved from its original storage chamber without informing the family.

Medical Superintendent of SSG Hospital, Dr Ranjan Aiyer, said in a statement that a “technical fault” could have led to the “unfortunate” decomposition of the body and condemned the attack on doctors, reports the Indian Express.

The incident has sparked wider concern within the medical community, prompting resident doctors at the hospital to go on strike and withdraw non-emergency services on Thursday. They have demanded enhanced security measures and accountability to prevent such incidents in the future.

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