No force used, says Delhi Police; doctor bodies allege thrashing, misbehaving

Delhi Police interact with doctors protesting outside Maulana Azad Medical College over postponement of National Eligibility Entrance Test postgraduate (NEET PG) counselling 2021 on December 27. Pic/PTI

Denying any usage of "force or lathicharge" on the resident doctors protesting across the national capital to expedite the counselling of NEET-PG 2021, the Delhi Police on Tuesday said they have "highest regard for the doctors."

"We did not use any force on the protestors. No canes were either used. In fact, Delhi Police has the highest regard for the doctors," Additional Commissioner (Central Range) Suman Goyal said.

However, the doctors associations alleged that they were brutally thrashed and dragged by the Delhi Police personnel. The resident doctors' ongoing agitation turned violent on Monday when they were taking out a protest March to the Supreme Court. As the Delhi Police did not allow them to continue with their proposed march, they sat in the middle of one of the busiest roads of the national capital near ITO junction at Bahadur Shah Zafar road.

As per a report in The New Indian Express, Dr Anuj Aggrawal, general secretary, Resident Doctors Association (RDA) Safdarjung Hospital alleged several women doctors were dragged by male cops. When they tried to record what they were undergoing, the cops snatched phones. He alleged several women doctors were misbehaved with. "It was a very shameful incident," he said.

"Due to their protest the road was blocked," the Additional Commissioner said, adding to pacify the protestors, Director Health Services along with Additional Director General reached the spot but still the junction remained blocked for the whole day. Goyal said inspite of repeated appeals by the authorities, some protesters again tried to continue with their march to the apex court.

"It was then that the police detained some doctors as a preventive measure," the senior police official informed. The police said that seven of their personnel were also injured during the chaos. It also said that two buses were damaged at that time. As many as 10-12 doctors were briefly detained by the police.

She said that in the past one year, doctors along with the police force have worked shoulder-to-shoulder relentlessly during the pandemic times. "But keeping in view the inconvenience caused to the general public due to the blockage of traffic on the ITO junction, we were forced to detain some doctors," she underlined.

Meanwhile, the resident doctors have expressed their anguish over the alleged police brutality. Speaking to IANS, one of the doctors at the Safdarjung Hospital, the hotspot of the ongoing stir, demanded a written apology from the Delhi Police.

Also Read: NEET PG counselling delay: Union Health Minister urges protesting resident docs to call off strike

As per latest reports, talks between the doctors' association representatives and Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya are currently underway at the Nirman Bhavan in the national capital.

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