Three days after a doctor was beaten to death by a mob at Teok Tea Estate in Assam’s Jorhat district, Jorhat Police arrested 30 people so far. A total of eight persons were arrested on September 3rd, 2019. They have been identified as Debeswar Rajowar, Kartik Bhumij, Ramdev Majhi, Kalicharan Mahili, Sanjay Rajowar, Rahul Rajowar, Jintu Majhi, Tinku Majhi and Siva Mahili.
Seventy-three-year-old Dr Deben Dutta was brutally assaulted by the relatives of a tea garden worker who died while undergoing treatment at a hospital at Teok Tea Estate on August 31st, 2019. Dr Dutta later succumbed to his injuries. He was working in the tea garden hospital after his retirement without remuneration.
Protesting against the mob attack, the doctors in Assam staged a 24-hour ‘withdrawal of non-emergency medical services’ across the state on September 3rd, 2019 to protest against the assault on their colleague.
The Teok Tea Estate management authority on August 31st, 2019, declared ‘lock-out’ of the TE over safety concern. Roshni Aparanji Korati, Jorhat Deputy Commissioner had ordered a magisterial inquiry into the assault of Dr Dutta.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) reiterated its zero-tolerance against any sort of violence on doctors, health workers and health establishments. “It is painful to express our serious concern on repeated assaults on doctors across Assam. This recent incidence has crossed all tolerable limits and IMA has found no words to condemn it,” IMA stated through a press communiqué on September 1st, 2019.
Photo: Time8
