Assault on Minto Hospital doctors: Protest enters 5th day

Team Udayavani, Nov 6, 2019, 11:22 AM IST

Bengaluru: The protest by the Post Graduate students of the Minto hospital, Vanivilas and Victoria hospitals and the members of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) demanding action against each other has entered 5th day on Wednesday.

The junior doctors are demanding action against KRV members who allegedly assaulted their colleague. While, KRV members demanded justice and action against doctors who were responsible for 22 people turning blind after the surgery. The victims were also present at the venue.

Meanwhile, police informed that they have started an investigation against Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) activist Ashwini Gowda and others, who allegedly assaulted a woman doctor at Minto Hospital on November 1.

On Tuesday, November 5, Medicos who protested in the premises of the Victoria hospital and suspended services in OPD. Senior doctors extended moral support to the protestors alleged that the was no response from the government even though they are protesting from last three days.

On the other hand, KRV members maintained that they had not assaulted anyone and challenged to doctors that if there was any proof let them come out with it. They also maintained that, it is being done willfully to hush up the big scandal.

On November 1, a group led by Ashwini Gowda entered the Minto Hospital premises to question the authorities on surgeries turning 22 people blind. As it was a holiday, junior doctors were at work. It is alleged that Ashwini Gowda and others surrounded, dragged, threatened and assaulted a junior doctor from Kerala for not speaking in Kannada. It is also alleged that the group assaulted another junior doctor who tried to videograph the incident.

Ashwini Gowda said that the junior doctor from Kerala told on her face that though she could speak Kannada she will not, as it was her choice. “We surrounded and asked the woman doctor to speak in Kannada. If at all she was assaulted, let her show evidence. We will continue to fight for victims who lost their eyesight after a cataract surgery in March,” she said.