Police in Guwahati 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 filed a first information report at Bhangagarh police station. Officers confirmed 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 then 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.
According to her account, the doctor asked whether she and her fiancé had been physically intimate. He allegedly told her an examination was necessary because her fiancé had undergone an HIV test, claiming 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 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. “He touched my private area inappropriately. We know the difference between good touch and bad touch, and what he did was bad touch,” she said. She further claimed that he asked her to remove her jeans, citing the need to examine her lower abdomen, and then 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.
She said she eventually managed to leave the room in distress, though her blood sample was collected later. She said she could no longer remain silent and reported the incident to hospital staff and her family. “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, senior doctors then asked her to sit elsewhere in the hospital and submit a written account. She alleged that she waited nearly an hour after submitting it without receiving any 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.
