Painful story of Dr Archana Sharma Suicide unmasks the everyday struggle of the doctors in present era. Although not ideal but being undervalued, dis-empowered and demonized, forced to work as sub-servant to bureaucrats are considered new normal and is an accepted form of harassment. Fatigue and burnout are thought to be routine side effects of being a doctor or nurse. Venomous media, celebrities, film stars and prominent personalities have left no stone unturned in spreading hatred and creating an environment of mistrust against the medical profession. They project single stray incident as an example and portray poor image of medical profession as generalization just to earn money and fame for themselves. Doctors have become prone to the verbal, physical as well as legal assaults. Dr Archana Suicide unmasked an organised crime and propagators were local goons, politicians and vulture journalist, who usually managed an orchestrated racket to blackmail the doctors and extort money. Doctors being soft targets because of their nature of work as they deal with life and death. Any death gives them opportunity to all to blackmail the doctors on the pretext of negligence, a legal weapon used by law-enforcers.
Dead doctor’s husband demands action against ‘vultures’ and ‘blackmailers’
Dead doctor’s husband demands action against ‘vultures’ and ‘blackmailers’
JAIPUR: The husband of gynaecologist Dr Archana Sharma, who committed suicide on Tuesday, lodged an FIR against one Shiv Shankar Ballya Joshi for exerting pressure on the doctor and organising protests in her hospital. Hours before his transfer, Dausa SP Anil Kumar said police have seen the CCTV footage wherein Joshi was belting out abusive slogans against the doctor in the hospital. Police said they were investigating Joshi’s role in the case. The entire incident began when a 22-year-old woman was brought to Sharma’s Anand Hospital on Sunday night with labour pain. Though she was taken to the labour room, her condition deteriorated allegedly due to excessive bleeding and she died on Monday. On the same day, Dausa police registered an FIR under Section 302 (Murder) of the IPC which names Dr Archana Sharma and her husband Dr Suneet Upadhyay. The FIR put Rajasthan police in a tight spot because several doctors alleged that cops could have filed the FIR under Section 304A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC, instead of slapping murder charges on doctors. 4/1/22, 3:20 PM Rajasthan: Dead doctor’s husband demands action against ‘vultures’ and ‘blackmailers’. Kumar, however, said the police only registered the FIR on the basis of the complaint filed by the patient’s family. In an emotional video message, Dr Upadhyay alleged that Joshi had promised the family a hefty compensation and brought them back with the body to the hospital. “Joshi called other BJP leaders to the hospital too. Joshi has been trying extortion and blackmailing in the hospital,” he said, adding that the police have been shielding Joshi due to a senior BJP leader of Dausa. Sharma’s husband Dr Suneet Upadhyay in his FIR said that some “vultures” played politics on the patient’s body as they gheraoed the hospital and forced the local administration to file a case of murder against the doctor. Upadhyay alleged that Joshi played a key role in this entire affair. He has been accused in the FIR of threatening the hospital multiple times in the past. As per the FIR, many complaints were filed against Joshi at the police station, but cops took no action against him, which further emboldened the accused. Upadhyay said Joshi was hurling invectives during the protest at the hospital and his wife could not tolerate such insults because she was a reputed surgeon who had saved the lives of several women and children. He said she was stalked by fears that Joshi could send her to jail even though she was innocent. The complaint also mentions that Sharma read a report of the incident in a local newspaper, but there was no mention of the hospital’s version there.
According to Upadhyay, the family members of the deceased patient had returned from the hospital with complete satisfaction because they had witnessed the doctors struggling for nearly two hours to save her life. He said the family of the deceased patient were preparing for her last rites when Joshi stepped in and brought the body back to the hospital. Joshi allegedly called up people over the phone and gathered a large crowd at the hospital. He wanted to file a case of murder against the doctor even though the family of the patient had not given any complaint. The FIR states that vultures like them have made the lives of doctors in the country very difficult and told cops to act against such blackmailers. Dausa police said they have booked Joshi under Section 306 (abetment of suicide), 304 (extortion) and 384 (extortion by threat of accusation of an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life, etc) of the IPC. Police said Joshi is a local leader, whereas, they are probing the journalist’s involvement.
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