Following the alleged manhandling by Vinay Kulkarni, Dharwad MLA, on Saturday, the victim, who is a doctor, filed a complaint against Mr. Kulkarni on Sunday.
However, they sorted out the matter by evening. Mr. Kulkarni regretted his action at a meeting held at the Police Commissioner’s office and the doctor, Devaraj Raichur, who is Head of the Paediatric Department at the Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) hospital here, withdrew his complaint.
Dr. Raichur told The Hindu that he did not know the reason behind the MLA’s action. Earlier, accompanied by other doctors, Dr. Raichur led a protest march from the KIMS premises to the Vidyanagar police station and filed the complaint. In the complaint, Dr. Raichur said that the MLA manhandled him on Saturday night after he came to KIMS hospital to enquire about a six-year-old girl, Megha, who died while undergoing treatment for dengue.
Megha, a resident of Lakamapur village in Dharwad taluk, was admitted to the hospital three days ago as she was displaying symptoms of dengue. He said that she developed complications on Saturday and died. Her family and relatives staged a protest, alleging negligence by KIMS doctors.
The MLA, who arrived at the hospital on hearing the news, allegedly spoke rudely to Dr. Raichur. This led to an altercation and the MLA allegedly manhandled the doctor.
While the doctors maintained that Megha suffered from heart-related ailments and developed complications, her parents alleged that she died owing to the doctors’ negligence.
When contacted, Police Commissioner B.A. Padmanayan told The Hindu that the doctor and the MLA had arrived at a compromise and had decided not to take the matter forward.
