Madhya Pradesh doctor, gunman frisk patients in hospital to seize tobacco; people call it 'inhuman'

Shahdol, July 18

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The civil surgeon of the Shahdol district hospital in Madhya Pradesh, while being escorted by a gunman and stick-wielding guards, frisked patients and their attendants, an act called “inhuman” by some.

After videos of the act surfaced on social media on Sunday, Dr GS Parihar told PTI that this was being done to stop the patients from chewing tobacco and spitting in the hospital.

In the video clips, Parihar, while holding a stick, along with security guards and a gunman, was seen asking the patients and their attendants in different wards of the government medical facility to hand over bidis, cigarettes and tobacco gutkha pouches to the guards.

Parihar admitted that he was there in the video clips.

He said a campaign is run regularly to seize gutkha pouches so that people could be stopped from spitting on the hospital premises and spreading filth.

Parihar said he kept a stick during evening walk for safety reasons while the guards seen in the video were the personnel hired by the hospital for the security of the premises.

Some social media users shared the videos on Twitter and criticised the hospital staff’s act.

“This is an inhuman act against the poor and weak women, children and patients,” someone tweeted while sharing the video.