Police have booked 20 activists of a pro-Kannada organisation for abusing, besieging, assaulting and obstructing doctors at the government-run Minto Ophthalmic Hospital from doing their duty. 

Based on a complaint filed by the dean of the hospital, the jurisdictional VV Puram police opened a case against the activists of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) under IPC sections 353 (obstructing public servants from discharging their duty), 323 (assault), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 506 (criminal intimidation). 

On November 1, KRV activists allegedly confronted a Malayali doctor for not knowing Kannada. The issue snowballed into a controversy as the day happened to be Kannada Rajyotsava, police said. 

A source in the police said the incident was the fallout of botched cataract surgeries that occurred in the hospital last June. A police case was also registered over the matter. The Indian Medical Association, too, opened a case while a government committee is investigating the matter. 

People who lost eyesight due to the surgeries and their relatives approached the government for compensation but their request was turned down. They then approached the KRV for help, the police source explained. 

In their defence, Minto doctors claimed the surgeries had gone awry because of the administration of a medication that was supplied to the operating theatre from an in-house pharmacy and that they had no control over the quality of the drug, added a source.