Navsari: The in-charge civil surgeon of Navsari Civil Hospital and two others have been detained on the charges of allegedly abetting the suicide of a nurse working at the medical facility.
According to the police, the search is also on for two other hospital staff members who are on the run, they said.
PTI reports that the nurse, who worked at the civil hospital's COVID-19 ward, was found hanging at her parents' house here in Gujarat on October 2. On the basis of a purported suicide note left by her and a police complaint filed by her mother, the in-charge civil surgeon, and the deceased's husband and mother-in-law were detained on Monday night, Deputy Superintendent of Police SG Rana said.
The civil surgeon is reportedly accused of sexually assaulting the nurse. Two other hospital personnel are alleged to have forced the woman to do so in order to retain her job. The woman's husband and mother-in-law are accused of demanding dowry and assaulting her.
They will be arrested after their COVID-19 test reports are received on Tuesday, he said.
Efforts are also on to nab the matron and an operation theatre in-charge of the civil hospital,who are currently absconding, he said.
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The civil surgeon is accused of sexually harassing the nurse, and the two other hospital staff allegedly forced her her to accept his advances to retain her job, another police official said.
Her husband and mother-in-law are accused of forcing her for dowry and subjecting her to cruelty, he said.
In the purported suicide note, the nurse had named the three hospital employees, and requested that her husband and mother-in-law not be called for her last rites, he said.
Her mother later filed a police complaint, alleging that the hospital''s in-charge civil surgeon was forcing the victim to have a physical relationship with him and harassed her when she turned down his advances, the official said.
The two other hospital staffers, who are currently absconding, were forcing her to give in to the doctor's demand if she wanted her contractual job to be made permanent, he said quoting the complaint.
The complainant also accused her daughter's husband and mother-in-law of harassing her, demanding Rs 5 lakh dowry and staking a claim on her salary, the official said.
She said her daughter shifted to their place as the accused were "torturing her physically and mentally", the police official said.
An FIR was lodged at Navsari police station on Sunday against the five accused under IPC Sections 304(b) (dowry death), 306 (abetment to suicide), 354(a)(using criminal force on woman or abet such act), 498(a) (husband or his relative subjecting woman to cruelty) and 114 (abettor present when the offence committed) and the Dowry Prohibition Act, he said.
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