A 55-year-old doctor from Belapur was arrested by the NRI Coastal police on Wednesday for allegedly raping a 17-year-old girl who worked in his clinic. A BAMS graduate, Dr. Sanjay Lad has been practising for the last 20 years at Diwale village in CBD Belapur.
The police suspect that he also sexually abused his former staff members. The victim had joined the clinic as a compounder on March 28 after appearing for her Class XII exam this year.
A police officer said, “She used to stay with her aunt at Juinagar while she was studying. After she got the job, she shifted to her own house in Chembur. On April 1, when she did not return home after work, her parents made inquires with her aunt.” The family then went to the clinic and Dr. Lad told them that their daughter had left work early as she wanted to go to Vashi.
On April 2, the family registered a kidnapping case under Section 363 of the Indian Penal Code with the NRI Coastal police. The same evening, the girl reached another aunt’s house in Belapur.
The victim told her aunt that she was raped by Dr. Lad in his clinic in the afternoon of April 1. When she protested, he told her that this was how he behaved with his staff and patients. He then closed the clinic from inside. The girl said she then fled the clinic and boarded a train to Madgaon. On the train, a woman sensed something was amiss and after hearing her ordeal told her to return home and file a complaint.
The girl then went along with her aunt and registered a case against Dr. Lad with the NRI coastal police. “Dr. Lad’s patients mostly belonged to the lower income group. During interrogation he admitted that he tested his patients for HIV and sexually abused them. He also used to pay money to his patients,” the officer added.
“The accused was produced before the Thane court on Thursday and has been remanded in police custody for seven days. As of now, there is only one victim in the case,” said Sudhakar Pathare, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone I. Dr. Lad was charged under Sections of 376 (rape) of the IPC, and sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
