Payal Tadvi Case: Accused doctors get bail

The Bombay High Court on Friday granted bail to all the three accused doctors booked on charges of harassment, casteist slurs and subsequent suicide of tribal-Muslim doctor Payal Tadvi.

Payal (26), a second-year postgraduate medical student, had hung herself in the hostel room of BYL Nair Hospital on May 22 this year.

The three senior doctors - Hema Ahuja, Ankita Khandelwal and Bhakti Meher, were accused of harassing her on the basis of her caste and were arrested on a complaint filed by the victim’s relatives.

They were booked under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) and 34 (acts are done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections under the Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The trio who had been charge-sheeted by Mumbai Crime Branch-CID had moved the high court after a special court rejected their bail pleas on June 24.

They were granted bail on personal bond of Rs 2 lakh each justice Sadhana Jadhav, who asked them to appear before the Crime Branch every alternate day and won’t be allowed to go inside the Nair Hospital, the court said adding that the licence of all three accused doctors to practice medicine shall remain suspended for the whole duration of the trial.