Suicide of Payal Tadvi

Last updated

The Payal Tadvi or Payal Salim Tadvi suicide case is an ongoing criminal case in the Maharashtra state of India. Payal allegedly committed suicide on May 22, 2019, after facing harassment by three of her seniors at Topiwala National Medical College and BYL Nair Hospital. [1] [2] A case has since been brought against three of her former colleagues due to claims of harassment relating to Payal's caste status. [3]

Contents

Background

Payal Salim Tadvi was a 26-year-old second year resident doctor at BYL Nair Hospital pursuing her master's degree in Obstetrics and Gynecology. [3] [4] [5]

She belonged to the scheduled Muslim Tadvi Bhil [6] tribe from the state of Maharashtra. Upon completing her undergraduate degree at a medical school in Jalgaon, she moved to Mumbai where she continued her studies at BYL Nair Hospital. [7] She was likely the first from her village to pursue a degree in medical sciences. [8]

Arrests and charges

Immediately following the incident, three of Payal Tadvi's senior colleagues, Dr. Bhakti Mehare, Dr. Ankita Khandelwal and Dr. Hema Ahuja were arrested by the Agripada police under accusations of abetting suicide and destruction of evidence. [9] [10] [3] Shortly after, under a request from the Tadvi family's legal representative, the case was transferred to the Mumbai Crime Branch. [11]

Roughly two months later (July 2019), Mumbai Police filed a 1,203-page charge sheet further accusing the three doctors of various offences under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act, and the 2000 Information Technology Act. [2] The charge-sheet contained statements from nearly 180 witnesses (colleagues, staff members, and seniors at the hospital) as well as the suicide note police had previously found on Payal Tadvi's mobile phone present at the scene. [2] Information provided in the statements suggests Payal Tadvi experienced discrimination and humiliation due to her social status, the seniors using casteist slurs against her and asking her about her National Eligibility cum Entrance Test scores. [12] Beyond verbal harassment, statements described instances in which the seniors prevented her from accessing important jobs or entering the operation theater. [12] In her own statement, Payal Tadvi's fellow peer and friend Snehal Shinde said that just two days prior to Payal's death the trio had demoted Payal from her upperclassman position in the hospital's antenatal care unit to the postnatal care unit typically reserved for underclassman. [12]

Attached to the charge sheet was the forensic report confirming the suicide note found had been in Payal Tadvi's handwriting. During the initial investigation of the scene, besides the note on Payal's phone, police were unable to locate a physical copy. [12] As the three seniors had been both the first to enter Payal's room after her death and the first to inform staff members, police suspect them of destroying it. [12]

On August 9, the trio was granted bail by the Bombay High Court. [7] [3] Each woman had to submit a surety of 2 lakh in rupees and appear before the crime branch every alternate day. [3] Additional stipulations of their bail restricted the women from traveling outside of Mumbai without explicit permission and forbade them from entering BYL Nair Hospital, or its affiliation, Topiwala National Medical College. [3] Until the conclusion of the trial, their medical licenses have been temporarily suspended. [12] As of February 2020, the three accused had submitted a plea to the court requesting permission to complete the final year of their postgraduate residencies' at BYL Nair Hospital. [13] That same month, Bombay High Court Justice Sadhana Jadhav rejected the request, informing the doctors they could pursue their post graduate education once the trial is complete. [14]

Besides the three seniors, in August Mumbai Police informed the court they had prepared a letter of inquiry against Yi Ching Ling, the head of the gynecology and obstetrics department at BYL Nair Hospital. [2] Payal Tadvi's mother, Abeda Salim Tadvi, reports she had approached Dr. Yi Ching repeatedly with complaints regarding the harassment with little result. [2] [12] Dr Yi Ching's involvement in the case resulted in her being suspended by the hospital; however, when the Tadvi family proved unable to produce proof of her negligence through the form of written complaints, the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission granted Dr. Yi Ching a clean chit, exonerating her from her suspected crime. [15] [16] Despite the exoneration, in February 2020 Dr. Yi Ching remained suspended. [16] Other professors at the university have since written petitions to the school requesting an inquiry with the hopes that she may eventually be reinstated. [16]

Trial proceedings

In February 2020, the Bombay High Court set a time constraint of 10 months on the special court to complete the trial. [14]

Larger issue

In the months following Payal Tadvi's death, her mother joined forces with Radhika Vemula to petition the supreme court for stronger enforcement of anti-discrimination policies in universities. [17] Radhika Vemula's experiences with loss mirror those of Abeda Tadvi, her son Rohith Vemula, another Dalit university student, having been driven to commit suicide in 2016. [18] In their petition the mothers requested the court issue further guidelines to universities who have seemingly failed to deter caste-based discrimination on their campuses. The women further critiqued the government for its "failure to protect the fundamental rights of Dalit and Adivasi students, faculty, and employees in university campuses." [17]

In order to promote positive change within India's universities, the mothers requested the Supreme Court issue the following four directions to higher education institutions:

  1. Establish Equal Opportunity Cells and include representatives of members of the oppressed communities in order to ensure an impartial process;
  2. Establish mechanisms that will take action against the victimization of students or staff who file complaints alleging caste discrimination;
  3. Regularly organize compulsory orientation courses and training for staff, administrators, and students to raise their sensitivity to caste issues;
  4. Display any actions being taken to address caste-based discrimination publicly and transparently, possibly through universities' websites. [17] [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shiv Sena</span> Political party in Maharashtra, India

Shiv Sena is a right-wing Marathi regionalist and Hindu ultranationalist political party in India founded in 1966 by Bal Thackeray. Shiv Sena's election symbol is the Bow and Arrow. It uses the saffron colour in its flag and a image of a roaring tiger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mumbai Police</span> Indian police department

The Mumbai Police is the police department of the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of Maharashtra Police and has the primary responsibilities of law enforcement and investigation within the limits of Mumbai. The force's motto is "Sadrakṣaṇāya Khalanigrahaṇāya".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nana Patekar</span> Indian film actor

Vishwanath Patekar, better known as Nana Patekar, is an Indian actor, screenwriter, film maker, and a former Indian Territorial Army officer, mainly working in Hindi and Marathi cinema. He is regarded as one of the finest and influential actors in Indian Cinema, Patekar is recipient of three National Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards and two Filmfare Awards Marathi for his acting performances. He was bestowed with the Padma Shri award in 2013 for his contribution in cinema and arts.

Ragging is the term used for the so-called "initiation ritual" practiced in higher education institutions in the Indian subcontinent, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. The practise is similar to hazing in North America, bizutage in France, praxe in Portugal, and other similar practices in educational institutions across the world. Ragging involves abuse, humiliation, or harassment of new entrants or junior students by the senior students. It often takes a malignant form wherein the newcomers may be subjected to psychological or physical torture. In 2009, the University Grants Commission of India imposed regulations upon Indian universities to help curb ragging and launched a toll-free 'anti-ragging helpline'.

The Jalgaon rape case was a major case of human trafficking, rape, and sexual slavery that took place in Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India. It came to light in July 1994. The women, many of them school-going minors, were tricked, drugged and sometimes tortured for rape by businessmen, professionals, politicians and criminals. It is said to involve 300 to 500 women and to have been running for 5 to 12 years. It revealed a nexus of the town’s influential people who exploited the girls.

Caste-related violence in India has occurred and continues to occur in various forms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Babasaheb Bhosale</span> Indian politician

Babasaheb Anantrao Bhosale was an Indian politician and freedom fighter who served as Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 21 January 1982, until 1 February 1983.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jivraj Narayan Mehta</span> 1st Chief Minister of Gujarat

Jivraj Narayan Mehta was an Indian politician and the first Chief Minister of Gujarat. He also served as the first "Dewan" of the erstwhile Baroda state, and Indian high commissioner to the United Kingdom from 1963 to 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. R. Antulay</span> Indian politician

Abdul Rahman Antulay was an Indian politician. Antulay was a union minister for Minority Affairs and a Member of Parliament in the 14th Lok Sabha of India. Earlier he had been the Chief Minister of the state of Maharashtra, but was forced to resign after being convicted by the Bombay High Court on charges that he had extorted money for a trust fund he managed. Later, the Supreme Court of India gave him clean chit in that case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anil Deshmukh</span> Indian politician

Anil Vasantrao Deshmukh is an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He is a senior leader of the Nationalist Congress Party. Deshmukh served as the Minister for Home Affairs in Government of Maharashtra between 2019 and 2021. Deshmukh resigned in 2021 as the Home Minister of Maharashtra due to allegations of extortion and laundering charges and is currently in judicial custody.

Rohith Chakravarti Vemula was an Indian PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad. From July 2015, the university stopped paying Rohith his monthly stipend of ₹25,000, with friends alleging that he was targeted for raising issues on campus under the banner of Ambedkar Students' Association (ASA), an Ambedkarite student organization.

Lakhumal Hiranand Hiranandani (1917–2013) was an Indian otorhinolaryngologist, social activist and philanthropist, known for pioneering several surgical procedures which later came to be known as Dr. Hiranandani's Operations. He was the founder chairman of Hiranandani Foundation Trust which runs two schools in India and was reported to have been active in the social movement against organ trade in India. He was a recipient of the Golden Award of the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, the first Indian and the fifth overall to receive the honour. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1972, for his contributions to medicine and society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maratha Kranti Morcha</span> Series of silent protests organized by the Maratha community

The Maratha Kranti Morcha, loosely translated as "Maratha revolutionary demonstration" in the Marathi language, is a series of silent and pragmatic protests organized by the Maratha community in various cities across India as well as overseas. Other groups, such as religious minorities including Muslims, have also supported the Morcha. The impetus for the rallies was the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Kopardi village, Maharashtra, on 13 July 2016. The protesters have demanded the death sentence for the rapists. Maratha caste dominate the power and cultural structure in Maharashtra owing to their numerical strength.

Abha Singh is an Indian activist and advocate currently practicing in the High Court of Judicature at Bombay. Her activism has focused on women's rights, gender equality, and justice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BETiC</span>

BETIC based at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay is an inter-disciplinary multi-institution initiative for medical device innovation. Established in 2014 with support from the government of Maharashtra, it comprises a network of 14 engineering and medical institutes across the state. The BETIC team have developed 50 medical devices as of 2019, and licensed 20 of them to startup companies or industry for mass production.

Radhika Vemula is an Indian activist for Dalit rights and against caste based discrimination.

Topiwala National Medical College and B.Y.L. Nair Charitable Hospital, Mumbai is a full-fledged tertiary Government medical college in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The college imparts the degree Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS). It is recognised by the Medical Council of India. This is one of the oldest medical colleges in Mumbai. It is located near Mumbai Central railway station

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death of Sushant Singh Rajput</span> 2020 death of Indian actor

On 14 June 2020, Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead, hanging from the ceiling fan at his room in Bandra, Mumbai, aged 34. The cause of death was ruled to have been suicide and the official postmortem reports concluded Rajput died of asphyxia due to hanging. The Mumbai Police launched an investigation into the death, which was the subject of widespread speculation and rumours.

Revati Mohite Dere is a judge in the Bombay High Court, India. She has written a number of significant judgments in relation to criminal procedure and police investigations in India, including cases concerning press freedom to report on criminal trials, death penalty sentences for repeated offences, and accountability within the police for false and improper investigations.

Sadhana Sanjay Jadhav is a judge of the Bombay High Court, in Maharashtra, India. Jadhav has been the judge in a number of notable cases concerning criminal offences, including the death of Sheena Bora, the Adarsh Housing Society scam, the trial of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt in relation to the 1993 Bombay bombings, the case concerning the suicide of medical resident Payal Tadvi, and the case concerning the murder of writer Govind Pansare. Jadhav is also responsible for several legally significant interpretations of criminal law and procedure, concerning the right to appeal, and regarding penalties under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Act 1989.

References

  1. ↑ "Dr Payal Tadvi Case: BMC Suspends License Of 4 Doctors At Nair Hospital". HuffPost India. 28 May 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Payal Tadvi suicide case: Accused doctors granted bail by Bombay HC on strict conditions". Scroll.in. 9 August 2019. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Nasim, Farhat (30 December 2019). "Dr Payal Tadvi Suicide Case: 2 Accused Doctors Exonerated by Maharashtra Human Rights Panel". Medical Dialogues. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  4. ↑ "Dr Payal Tadvi faced regular abuse, threats: Anti-ragging panel". The Times of India. 30 May 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  5. ↑ "College Confirms Payal Tadvi Was Subjected to 'Extreme Harassment'". The Wire. 29 May 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  6. ↑ "Explained: Who are Tadvi Bhil Muslims?". Indianexpress.com. 29 May 2019.
  7. 1 2 Shantha, Sukanya (27 September 2019). "Four Months After Payal Tadvi's Death, Family Claims Her Belongings From Hospital". The Wire. Mumbai. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  8. ↑ Perappadan, Bindu Shajan (30 May 2019). "Payal Tadvi death an "institutional murder", says medical fraternity". Thehindu.com.
  9. ↑ "Was Mumbai doctor Payal Tadvi murdered? Post mortem report finds bruises on neck, body". India Today.
  10. ↑ Mengle, Gautam S. (29 May 2019). "Payal Tadvi's death: Two more doctors held; all three accused remanded in police custody till May 31". Thehindu.com.
  11. ↑ Mengle, Gautam S. (30 May 2019). "Crime Branch to probe Payal Tadvi suicide case". Thehindu.com.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Shantha, Sukanya (25 July 2019). "Payal Tadvi Case: Chargesheet Reveals Months of Humiliation, Discrimination". The Wire. Mumbai. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  13. ↑ Saigal, Sonam (21 February 2020). "Payal Tadvi suicide: gynaecology HoD of Nair Hospital to appear before HC". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  14. 1 2 "Payal Tadvi Case: Three Accused Refused Bombay HC Nod to Complete PG from Nair Hospital". News18. Mumbai. 21 February 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  15. ↑ Sen, Sumanti (31 December 2019). "Payal Tadvi Suicide: Two Department Heads Given Clean Chit For Want Of "Linking Evidence"". thelogicalindian.com. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  16. 1 2 3 Menon, Vinod Kumar (12 February 2020). "Payal Tadvi suicide case: 'Allow Dr Ching Ling to get back to work'". mid-day. Mumbai. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  17. 1 2 3 "Mothers of Rohit Vemula, Payal Tadvi petition Supreme Court against caste discrimination on campuses". TheLeaflet. 28 August 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  18. ↑ Vemireddy, Nithya (13 July 2019). "The Price of India's Caste System: The Case of Rohit Vemula – AIF". American India Foundation. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  19. ↑ "Mothers of Rohith Vemula and Dr Payal Tadvi move SC over casteism on campuses". The News Minute. 20 September 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.