GUWAHATI: Police have registered a case against a doctor at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) after a young woman accused him of sexually harassing her under the pretext of a medical examination.The alleged incident took place on Thursday, following which the woman’s family lodged an FIR at Bhangagarh police station. Police said on Saturday that a case had been registered under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including those relating to sexual harassment and endangering personal safety.“We have registered a case based on the woman’s complaint. The doctor has been summoned, and interrogation is underway,” a police officer said.Recounting her ordeal before the media, the woman said she had visited GMCH with her aunt to show a doctor the medical reports of her fiancé, who had reportedly tested negative for HIV. She alleged that the doctor subsequently insisted on examining her as well.“When we went to show him the reports, he called my aunt and me into the examination room. After asking her a few questions, he asked her to wait outside, saying he needed to discuss some personal matters with me because I was the patient’s girlfriend,” she said.The woman said the doctor asked whether she and her fiancé had been physically intimate. He allegedly told her that she needed to be examined because her fiancé had undergone an HIV test, claiming that certain diseases could manifest months or even years later.Although she agreed to a chest and lower-abdominal examination, she alleged that the doctor asked her to remove her clothes, shut the examination-room door and proceeded with the examination without anyone else present.“I questioned why I had to remove my T-shirt and asked whether he could examine me without it being taken off. I felt uncomfortable but initially did not object because he was a doctor,” she said.The woman alleged that the doctor then touched her private parts inappropriately despite her discomfort.“He touched my private area inappropriately. We know the difference between good touch and bad touch, and what he did was bad touch,” she alleged.She further claimed that the doctor asked her to remove her jeans, citing the need to examine her lower abdomen, and subsequently pulled them down himself, saying he needed to examine her private parts.“I questioned why such an examination was necessary, but he insisted that he needed to check properly,” she said.The woman said she eventually managed to leave the room in distress. Although her blood sample was collected later, she said she could no longer remain silent and reported the alleged incident to hospital staff and her family members.“I was frightened and could not speak up earlier. When I came out of the room, I was crying. I eventually told them everything that had happened,” she said.According to the woman, some senior doctors subsequently asked her to sit at another location in the hospital and submit a written account of the incident. However, she alleged that she waited for nearly an hour after submitting the application without receiving any further assistance.“We waited for almost an hour after I submitted the written complaint, but nobody came to attend to us. We finally left the hospital and approached the police and lodged an FIR,” she said.
