MUMBAI: The Mumbai Court on Friday extended the judicial custody of three senior female doctors allegedly arrested for abetting the suicide of Dr Payal Salman Tadvi by tormenting her with casteist slurs to till June 10.
According to Times Now, the court’s decision extended the custody of Bhakti Mehere, Hema Ahuja and Ankita Khandelwal after the investigating officer (IO) and the Crime Branch failed to furnish the deceased’s suicide note, an evidence supporting allegations.
A second year post-graduate student of Gynaecology, 26-year-old Tadvi, was found allegedly hanging in her hostel room on May 22 at the government-run BYL Nair Hospital.
The Mumbai Police handed over the investigation to the Crime Branch as the family raised apprehensions that Payal Tadvi may have been murdered in view of injury marks on her body, as revealed in the preliminary autopsy report.
The Tadvi family has levelled serious allegations against the four senior doctors pertaining to discrimination, professional harassment, torturing Payal with casteist remarks on her tribal Muslim background and demanded “strictest action” against them.
Following the incident, the three doctors were charged with various sections of the Atrocities Act, Anti-Ragging Act, IT Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
With agency inputs