Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat president Meenakshi Shanthigodu has been booked by the district police for alleged misbehaviour with a government doctor at Puttur recently.
Ms. Shanthigodu has been booked under Section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 of the Karnataka Prohibition of Violence against Medicare Services Personnel and Damage to Property in Medicare Services Institutions Act 2009 at the District Women’s Police Station. She allegedly abused Archana Karikal, a paediatrician at the Puttur Government Hospital, Puttur, on June 29.
In her complaint on Monday, Dr. Karikal said that she was attending to patients when Ms. Shanthigodu came to the hospital at around 5.30 p.m. on June 29 to meet a 13-year-old girl belonging to the Scheduled Castes community, who had accused the police of physical abuse at the Puttur Rural Police Station.
After attending to some patients in her chamber, Dr. Karikal came out to meet Ms. Shanthigodu with the girl. Ms. Shanthigodu raised her voice against the doctor and went on abusing her even as the latter asked the former to maintain peace in the hospital. The doctor then went back to her chamber to resume treating patients waiting in queue. Ms. Shanthigodu then trooped into the doctor’s chamber and sought details about the injuries the girl had suffered in a raised voice.
When the doctor cited rules to refuse details about patients, Ms. Shanthigodu said that the doctor was not treating the girl properly as she was a Dalit. The doctor has accused Ms. Shanthigodu of asking her aide to record the whole incident on a mobile phone and posting it on social media to defame her.
