Dr Payal Death Case: Prosecution fails to submit evidence against accused doctors

In a major development in Mumbai’s Dr Payal Tadvi death case, the prosecutor failed to produce evidence against all the three accused senior doctors. The investigating officer (IO) and the Crime Branch failed to furnish the deceased's suicide note, adding context to the charge of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 309 levelled against Dr Bhakti Mehra, Dr Ankita Khandelwal, and Dr Hema Ahuja.

The court on Friday sent three senior female doctors accused to judicial custody till June 10. All the three doctors are accused of abetting the suicide of second-year gynaecology student Dr Payal Tadvi.

Addressing media personnel, the defence lawyer Sandeep Bali said that he will opt to file a bail application in the favour of the accused doctors by Monday.

Meanwhile, earlier, Nitin Salute, lawyer of Payal’s family argued in the court that the second-year medical student was could be murdered. “The accused had taken Payal’s body to some other place and it was later brought back to the hospital, so there is a suspicion of tampering. From the circumstances of her death and bruise mark on her body, it can be said that it must be a case of murder. Therefore, the police must look at this as a murder case,” Salute said.

A 26-year-old Dr Payal Tadvi, a second-year student of Gynaecology at the BYL Nair Hospital in Mumbai, was found hanging inside her hostel room on May 22. Dr Tadvi’s mother claimed that her daughter was repeatedly harassed by three senior doctors, who hurled casteist slurs at her and even embarrassed her on a WhatsApp group.

All of the accused doctors have been named in the FIR filed under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, IPC sections for abetment to suicide and Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1999.

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