Kolkata: Police arrested a contractual laboratory technician at West Bengal’s Howrah District Hospital on Sunday after allegedly abusing an underage patient on hospital grounds, according to officials here. The incident occurred late Saturday night, and the accused was quickly arrested.
According to the hospital authorities, the victim was brought to the hospital for a CT scan following some medical complications. She was taken to the hospital laboratory, where the accused technician allegedly molested her.
After she emerged from the laboratory, she revealed her ordeal to her family members, who immediately brought the matter to the attention of the hospital authorities. The authorities, in turn, quickly informed the local police station.
According to police sources, the accused was taken into custody, and his interrogation continued until Sunday morning. The hospital authorities have claimed that while the local police are conducting their investigation, the hospital’s internal complaints committee has also started investigating the matter.
Besides probing the incident, the internal committee is also looking into the existing lapses in the security system within the hospital system, taking the chance of which the molestation incident took place.
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The situation has surfaced at a time when statewide protests are on over the ghastly rape and murder of a woman doctor at state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata within the hospital premises last month.
While the scars of the tragedy are still fresh, the incident at Howrah General Hospital has raised questions over the security arrangements at the state-run hospitals in the state.
In the case of the Howrah District Hospital, the accused was a contractual staff member of the same organisation, and in the case of the R.G. Kar tragedy, the sole arrested accused was a civic volunteer, basically a contractual staff member attached to the Kolkata Police.
Similarly, in Badlapur in Maharashtra, the sexual harassment of two school girls was also committed by a contractual staff on duty.
After the RG Kar incident, several lapses in the internal security and surveillance system within the hospital premises surfaced.
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–IANS
