Assam institutes one-man inquiry into lynching of doctor

CM talks to slain doctor’s wife; IMA demands legislation to check violence, calls for strike

A fast track court will try the cases involving the killing of Deben Dutta at Teok Tea Garden in Upper Assam, the State government said in a press release on Wednesday. The government has also asked Commissioner and Secretary-Finance Shyam Jagannathan to conduct an inquiry into the killing of the doctor.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today had a telephonic conversation with the widow of slain doctor and empathised with bereaved family members. The CM condemned the killing and said that strict action would be initiated against those who took law in their hands.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) had earlier on Wednesday threatened that doctors countrywide would indefinitely cease work, including emergency services, if the Centre failed to enact a law to check violence against health professionals.

The threat followed a 24-hour strike by doctors across Assam to protest the lynching of 73-year-old Dr. Dutta by tea plantation workers in Jorhat district’s Teok on Saturday.

‘Reached end-point’

“Doctors continue to be attacked. We have reached the end-point,” IMA president Santanu Sen said after visiting Dr. Dutta’s family in Teok.

The IMA’s president said that the association had written to the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister, the Health Minister and the Chief Minister, underlining the need to check violence against health professionals.

Local authorities have, meanwhile, arrested Manoj Majhi, a leader of the All Assam Tea Tribe Students’ Association, for allegedly instigating the attack on Dr. Dutta. At least 30 others involved in the lynching have been arrested.

Proper implementation

Doctors in Assam have been demanding safety for health professionals and proper implementation of the Assam Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Protection of Violence and Damage to Property) Act in the State.

The Indian Tea Association, hit by a market slump, has also been asking the government to take over the tea estate hospitals. Assam has some 800 large tea estates and most of them have hospitals that offer free service to plantation workers.