Mumbai Police crime branch to probe doctor Payal Tadvi's suicide case
Mumbai: Mumbai Police crime branch will now probe the alleged suicide committed by doctor Payal Tadvi after some of her senior colleagues passed casteist slurs at her at a state-run hospital here, an official said Thursday.
Considering the seriousness and importance of the case, the investigation has been transferred to the crime branch, Deputy Commissioner of Police Manjunath Singte said.
Tadvi's lawyer Nitin Satpute said the decision came after they demanded that the case be transferred to the CBI or the crime branch as they felt it was not properly investigated by the Agripada police here.
"Wesuspect it to be a case of murder, but the police have not conducted the investigation properly, hence we wanted the case to be transferred to some other probing agency," Satpute said.
Three women doctors - Bhakti Mehere, Hema Ahuja and Ankita Khandelwal - were earlier arrested after their 26-year -old junior colleague Tadvi at the B Y L Nair Hospital here allegedly hanged herself at her hostel room last week, according to the police.
Tadvi's family alleged that the doctors taunted her by ragging and hurling casteist abuses as she belonged to a Scheduled Tribe.
The accused were booked under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Anti-Ragging Act, IT Act and section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.
They have been remanded in police custody till Friday.
The police told a special court here on Wednesday that while the mobile phones of the accused were seized, more time was required to recover their WhatsApp chats with the victim.
The police claimed the victim's body had a few injury marks which needed to be probed further. The postmortem report was awaited, they said.
On Tuesday, Tadvi's parents protested at the hospital in Mumbai where she worked. Other protesters also joined her mother Abeda and husband Salman, demanding stringent action against the three seniors.
The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and other Dalit and tribal organisations also held protests outside the hospital. Tadvi's mother said her daughter used to tell her about the "torture" she was facing by her seniors on petty issues.
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Sujit Nair raises concerns over speculation of DMK-AIADMK understanding to block TVK
Chennai: Journalist and political commentator Sujit Nair has expressed concern over speculation that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam could explore a post-poll understanding to prevent Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam from forming the government in Tamil Nadu.
In a social media post, Sujit Nair said the election verdict in Tamil Nadu reflected a clear public demand for political change and argued that the mandate should be respected irrespective of political preferences.
Referring to reports and political discussions surrounding a possible understanding between the DMK and AIADMK, he said he hoped such developments remained only speculative conversations and did not turn into reality.
Nair stated that if such an alliance were to take shape, it would raise serious questions about ideological politics in the country. He said TVK had emerged through a democratic electoral process and that the legitimacy to govern in a parliamentary democracy comes from the people’s verdict.
According to him, attempts to prevent an electoral winner from forming the government through unexpected political arrangements may be constitutionally valid, but many people could view them as politically opportunistic.
He further said that such a move could particularly affect the political image of the DMK, which has historically projected itself around ideology, social justice and opposition politics. Nair said that in ideological terms, the DMK appeared closer to TVK than to the AIADMK, and joining hands with its long-time political rival only to remain in power could weaken its broader political narrative.
He added that the same questions would apply to the AIADMK as well, as the party had spent decades positioning itself against the DMK and such an arrangement could create discomfort among its cadre and supporters.
Drawing a comparison with Maharashtra politics in 2019, Nair said he had expressed similar views when the Shiv Sena formed an alliance with the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party after the Assembly elections.
He said post-poll alliances between long-standing political rivals often create a public perception that ideology and electoral mandates become secondary when political power equations come into play.
Nair also said such developments increase public cynicism towards politics and reinforce the belief among voters that ideology is often sidelined after elections.
He maintained that the Tamil Nadu verdict was emphatic and said respecting both the spirit and substance of the mandate was important for the credibility of democratic politics.
