A 35-year-old mentally challenged woman under treatment at the State Institute of Mental Health (SIMH) was allegedly raped by a contractual staff twice over the past one month. The accused was arrested on Friday after the victim reported the matter to the hospital staff.
Staff member arrested
The matter came to light when the victim hinted about the rape to one of the hospital staff members, who did a pregnancy test and found it positive. A formal complaint was then lodged with the police and the accused, Umesh Giri, was arrested.
The Uttarakhand native was hired on contract five years ago and works as bearer in the hospital.
Under treatment
The accused was arrested after he was identified by the victim as the perpetrator.
“The woman was brought to the hospital on June 9, 2016, following the orders of Gohana Sub-Divisional Magistrate after she was found roaming around aimlessly in the area. Her mental condition was not sound and she was under treatment. The accused was produced before the court and sent to jail,” said Station House Officer of PGIMS police station Manjeet Singh.
SIMH Chief Executive Officer Dr. Rajiv Gupta told The Hindu over the phone that the outsourced staff was provided by a contractor and it was difficult for the hospital authorities to check their antecedents.
Precautions
“It is a big problem for us to keep a check on the outsourced staff. The regular staff has more accountability. But it is the government policy to hire contractual staff and nothing much can be done about it. But we will be holding a meeting in the next two days and plug the loopholes. Also, we will try to reduce interaction between the female patients and the male staff, especially after 9 p.m,” said Dr. Gupta.
