Patna (Bihar), May 22: National Commission for Women (NCW) sought a report from the Bihar government about an incident where the staff of a private hospital in Patna allegedly sexually harassed and attempted to rape a Covid patient who has since died.
NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma wrote a letter to the Bihar chief secretary and police chief inquiring about the incident and she asked them to submit a report.
The woman, aged 45 years, who was being treated in the ICU ward of the hospital, died on Wednesday. The incident came to light when the women's daughter uploaded her mother's statement on social media. In the video, the victim was saying that she was sexually molested by four people in the hospital.
After the video went viral on social media, police spurred into action. Shanti Nagar Police reached Paras Hospital where the victim was admitted. City SP Upendra Kumar Sharma said, as soon as we noticed the incident a police team was sent to the hospital to investigate the matter.
Station in-charge Ram Shankar Singh informed that no one has given a written complaint about this incident. Meanwhile, the hospital management denied the allegation made against them.
The victim's daughter went to meet her mother in the hospital on Monday morning. That is when the victim told her daughter about this incident. The victim's daughter recorded her mother's statement in which the victim told her daughter that after she left the hospital on Sunday, four people entered the ICU late in the evening.
She said that these men misbehaved with her and tried to rape the woman. The victim was admitted to the hospital for the past 10 days for COVID-19 treatment.
Police contacted the victim’s family and have started an investigation into the matter. They are checking CCTV footage outside the ICU and who all were on duty that day in the hospital.
The hospital management issued a statement stating that allegations made against the hospital staff are baseless. We formed an internal team to investigate the matter and found no such incident has occurred in the hospital premises, they said.
Instead, the hospital blamed the victim saying that she was not in her senses. Further, the hospital said that it was reported many times that the victim used to take off her mask and other equipment. They alleged that the woman was psychologically disturbed and was hallucinating.
The hospital said that there were 20 to 25 people admitted to the ICU ward where the patient was being treated. In such a scenario it would be impossible for any outsider to misbehave, the hospital maintained. The hospital promised to extend their full cooperation to the police in the investigations.