Deliberate harassment drove Warangal medico to suicide attempt, say cops

It was deliberate harassment by her senior student that drove Dr. Daravath Preethi to attempt death by suicide

Warangal: It was deliberate harassment by her senior student that drove Dr. Daravath Preethi, a first year MD Anaesthesia student of Kakatiya Medical College, to attempt death by suicide, the police said here on Friday.

Addressing a press conference, Warangal Police Commissioner AV Ranganath said the senior student, Dr MA Saif, who was arrested on Friday in connection with the attempt to die by suicide by Dr Preethi, had ‘deliberately harassed and insulted’ the victim on WhatsApp groups.

Following this, the police have included sections of the Prohibition of Ragging Act as well in the case booked against Dr. Saif. The case registered by the Matwada police is under Section 306 read with 108 and 354 of the Indian Penal Code, 4(V) of Prohibition of Ragging Act and Sections (1)(r), 3 (2)(va),3 (1)(w) (ii) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The case was booked based on a complaint by the victim’s father Daravath Narender.

Ranganath said they suspected Dr Preethi tried to end her life by taking an unknown injection while she was on duty at the MGM Hospital here on Wednesday.

“During a search, we found a vial of Succinylcholine chloride, which is a depolarizing muscle relaxant in her emergency drug kit. We also found that she had Googled about the injection. We suspect that she would have tried to die by suicide due to continuous harassment, a kind of bossism which can be seen as ragging, by her senior Dr MA Saif, who is the second year student of the same department,” he said.

The CP, however, added that they could tell what exactly led to a state of unconsciousness and subsequent health complications only after getting the toxicology report from the NIMS, which was expected in two or three days.

Though MGM Hospital and KMC authorities had earlier claimed that Preethi would have taken the extreme step due to health complications which include thyroid and auto immune disorder, the Commissioner made it clear that the police were seeing the case as a deliberate attempt of the senior student who insulted on her a WhatsApp group of the MD Anaesthesia students of the KMC.

“A kind of bossism, where the juniors call the senior medicos as ‘sirs,’ is prevailing across all medical colleges in the State. This is not a desirable culture,” he said, adding that Saif had insulted her several times in WhatsApp chats.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner also made it clear Saif had no political links. He hailed from a middle class family from Kazipet, he said and asked social media to desist from making baseless allegations on the police in the case.

Referring to allegations of laxity in the case, the Commissioner said neither the police nor the hospital and college managements showed any negligence in the case.
“Even the victim’s father told me that there was no negligence by the police,” he said.