Police, Mewat medicos clash; 25 hurt

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Mewat, August 20

The staff and students of Shaheed Hasan Khan Medical College, Nuh, and police clashed on the campus in the wee hours today. More than 25 persons were injured. Of them, four doctors were said to be critically injured.

About 50 doctors resigned. The hospital staff went on strike. A PCR van was torched in the clash.

The police blamed the hospital staff of holding them hostage, while students and staff accused the police of misbehaving with them in an inebriated state.

One of the medical students claimed that policemen in an inebriated condition entered the emergency ward around 2 am today. When a guard objected, the policemen thrashed him. A senior doctor, Shiv Dutta, called the police. When the SHO reached the spot, he did not control his colleagues and, instead, misbehaved with doctors. When they resisted, he called more force and attacked them.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Kuldeep Singh, however, blamed the guard for triggering the clash. “The guard entered into a verbal spat with the police. He called his friends and members of the hospital staff, and held three policemen hostage. When the Nuh SHO went to resolve the matter, he was held hostage as well. Later, medical students joined the staff in harassing the police.”

The PCR van was torched, forcing the police to resort to mild lathicharge to control the situation, the SP said.

Students, however, claimed that the police set the PCR van on fire to save their skin. “We have videographic proof of it,” one of them said.

They said the police should not have entered the premises without the college director’s permission.

The Health Department deployed six doctors to ensure emergency services remained unaffected by the strike.

The college director could not be contacted, while Director (Medical Education) Dr DK Bahera was sent from Chandigarh to take stock of the situation. The doctors ended the strike after Nuh SHO Sanjay Yadav was suspended. The administration assured action against erring cops and compensation for injured students.