2 CMOs of AMU JN Medical College issued termination order allegedly over Hathras case

According to recent media accounts, one of the CMOs previously gave a statement against the FSL report of the police on the Hathras case where a tribal woman was allegedly raped.

While the police report stated that the girl might not be raped as there was no semen on the body, the doctor told The Indian Express that the samples taken for forensic science laboratory examinations were taken after 11 days of the incident which occurred on September 14th and hence "held no value" as according to government guidelines forensic evidence will be held valuable only if it is collected within 96 hours of the incident.

This reportedly contradicted the police statement directly and the doctor alleged that he might be removed as he expressed his opinion in front of the media. The doctor told TOI, "we had never given any statement but present our opinion as a doctor to the media persons in this case and that could be one of the reasons for my remove for JNMC."

On Tuesday morning, CMO in-charge Dr. SAH Zaidi issued letters to both the doctors dismissing them from the duty of CMO. The letter stated: "This is to inform you that as directed by the Hon'ble Vice-Chancellor via telephone on 20.10.2020 at 11:14 am, your appointment on the post of Medical Officer, Emergency & Trauma, JNMCH, is rejected with immediate effect. Therefore, you are requested not to perform any further duties."

The doctors were appointed on leave vacancy after passing their post-graduate examination this year. They were appointed as casualty officers as many doctors infected with COVID were on leave. One of the two doctors confirmed that he has not been provided with last month's salary and has been given significant scolding by his seniors because of disclosing his personal opinion in front of the media. He also stated that he has been rebuked though he did not do anything wrong. In September he filed his application for an extension but it has been rejected only after 1 month.

The doctor alleged that their services have been terminated without any proper reason. The other CMO had attested the woman's medico-legal case report.

As far as the case of the other doctor is concerned, he told The Indian Express that he pursued his masters in surgery from AMU and after his graduation, this year he was asked to immediately join as his seniors were ill. He further added that "I worked during the

pandemic and risked my life and now they have terminated us because one of the doctors spoke to the media and they think that I leaked information. I am still not sure why I am being targeted. Three days ago, I came to know that my appointment will be rejected. We still don't have a written statement from the Vice-Chancellor about this… This is sad, we didn't do anything wrong."

However, the hospital denied any allegation and confirmed that the dismissals have no connection with the Hathras case and told TIE that "The administration has not suspended any doctor related to Hathras incident. Two months back, there were vacancies because existing CMOs took leave. Few of them were infected with Covid. There was an emergency and the two doctors were only appointed to fill the 'leave vacancies'. Now that the CMOs are back, there are no leave vacancies, hence their services are not required." The hospital also confirmed that the authorities will look into the matter if the two doctors are unwilling to leave and will consider their plights as well.

The Hindu reports that RDA has clearly opposed the decision of the authorities to terminate the services of the two doctors. Hamza Malik, president, Resident Doctors' Association, demanded that the two doctors should be "reinstated within 24 hours" or else the RDA would take a "big decision". "We have been assured over the phone that they will be reinstated, but we would not relent until we get it in writing," he added.