A sanitation worker at Apollo Hospital in Gandhinagar has been sentenced to seven years in prison for raping a 19-year-old dengue patient in the ICU in 2016. The main accused in the case, a Pakistani-origin doctor, is currently on the run.
The incident happened on September 3 and September 4, 2016. At that time, the victim was undergoing dengue treatment at the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU). According to Additional Public Prosecutor P. D. Vyas, she was raped by a sanitation worker, Chandrakant Vankar, alias Chandu, on September 3, while her hands were clamped to the hospital bed. On the next day, she was gang raped by Vankar and Dr. Ramesh Chauhan while the patient was under the influence of medication.
The victim was traumatized and kept sobbing and imploring her parents to take her out of the hospital. She did not reveal the incident for two days. She scrawled the incident on a piece of paper, saying that she was raped by an on-duty doctor.
The convicts were arrested by the Adalaj police. As the victim belongs to a scheduled caste, provisions of the Atrocities Act were also applied. Vankar was sentenced to seven-year imprisonment by the court on Tuesday and a fine of Rs. 2,000. The court ordered Rs. 20,000 as compensation to the victim. The Pakistani doctor, who was released on bail, absconded during the trial and never showed up for further proceedings.
Dr. Ramesh Chauhan is a Pakistani national from Umerkot, Pakistan. He came to Ahmedabad and lived with his elder brother Gulaji and his sister-in-law in Kubernagar. He completed his medical degree from Karachi University. He obtained a residential permit in Ahmedabad but worked at the hospital on a long-term visa. The Pakistani doctors who were working on LTV resigned at the time of the incident. Dr. Ramesh Chauhan was also booked under the provisions of the Foreigners Act for working illegally at Apollo Hospital. He obtained bail from the Gujarat High Court while the trial was ongoing and did not appear before the trial court; hence, he was declared an absconder. Vankar's case was separated from the doctor's and tried first.
The public prosecutor, P. D. Vyas, examined 23 witnesses and provided 35 pieces of documentary evidence to the court to prove the guilt of the convict that the victim was sedated and tied to the hospital bed before she was raped. Vanker was found guilty under Section 376(c)(d) of the IPC. The additional district and sessions judge, D. K. Soni, while convicting Vankar, entitled an application to execute the trial against Dr. Chauhan separately.
(Input from various media sources)
(Rehash/Lavanya Beeraboina)