Sisters abducted from hospital allege sexual assault

Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, August 18

Two sisters from Mahabubnagar district in Telangana have alleged that they were drugged and sexually assaulted at the local Gandhi hospital, the state’s nodal hospital for COVID-19 patients, where they had gone for the treatment of one of these women’s husbands.

In a complaint to the police, the victims are said to be aged 38 and 40. The younger of the two has said that they were drugged within the hospital premises, taken outside the hospital, and confined at an unknown location for several days.

Both sisters went missing from the hospital on August 7. While the younger has managed to reach the police, the elder sister is still missing. The Hyderabad Police have arrested four men, including a lab technician.

The two sisters had arrived at Gandhi hospital accompanying the husband of one of them, who was admitted for treatment of a liver disorder. According to the statement given to a local news channel, the younger sister has said that she was drugged within the hospital premises on August 7 and had no recollection of the events after that. She was found lying naked, unconscious in the hospital premises on August 14.

A technician with the Radiology department, their relative, and a few of his colleagues are the prime suspects in the case. Surprisingly, the husband of one of the sisters was informed by the technician that one of the sisters was found in a naked and unconscious in the hospital premises.

The police got into action after a women’s organisation formed a fact-finding team and probed the disappearance. Initially, a complaint was lodged at Mahbubnagar, but the Mahbubnagar police did not pay heed to the request for a zero FIR. They were redirected to the Chilkalguda police station in Hyderabad, where an FIR was finally registered on August 16.

Police inspector G Naresh told the media that the technician identified as Uma Maheswar and three others had been taken into custody based on the complaint, and an investigation has been taken up.

Sources at the hospital have unofficially said that the medical examination of one of the women who alleged sexual assault on her and her sister had not found any evidence of assault or struggle. The second woman is still missing.

Meanwhile, the five-member women fact-finding team who went to enquire about the incident at the Gandhi Hospital were taken into preventive custody by the Lalaguda police on Tuesday for trying to interfere with the functioning of the police.