Hathras: Doctors Who Questioned UP Police's Narrative On Rape Asked To Go

Two doctors connected to the case of the 19-year-old Dalit woman from Hathras — Mohammad Azimuddin Malik and  Obaid Imtiazyul Haque — were removed from their post on Tuesday, said reports. 

Malik was the temporary Chief Medical Officer of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital (JNMC). 

Malik had questioned the FSL (forensic science laboratory) report in the case which the Uttar Pradesh police had cited to say that the woman was not raped. 

Hindustan Times reports that the doctors were asked to leave a day after officers of the CBI visited the hospital. 

The newspaper reported that while the hospital claimed that the two doctors were asked to go because they were recruited on a temporary basis, one of the doctors said that their removal could have been because of the Hathras case. 

The woman from Hathras was moved to Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital where she died of her injuries. While Malik had contradicted the UP police’s version that the four men did not rape the woman, Haque had reportedly attested her medico-legal report. 

Malik told Hindustan Times, “For concrete finding of rape, one needs to go for a test within four days of the incident and the test conducted after 11 days serves no purpose. This was all I had said and did not mention it in regard to the Hathras victim’s case.” 

After first saying that the termination had nothing to do with the Hathras case, the AMU administration told The Indian Express ,“It has come to our notice that the doctors aren’t happy with the decision. We are looking into their grievances and they might be adjusted somewhere else in the hospital.” 

There has been much controversy regarding the Hathras case, with regard to the way in which the Uttar Pradesh administration handled it. Her family had alleged she was cremated in the middle of the night without their approval, which the Uttar Pradesh police have denied. 

Meanwhile, the police have also claimed that she had not been raped and it was not a caste crime. The four accused arrested in the case belong to the Thakur community. 

Uttar Pradesh ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar had said that some people were wrongly presenting facts to disturb harmony.

However, Malik had told The Indian Express , “The samples for FSL were collected 11 days after the woman was raped, while the government guidelines strictly say forensic evidence can only be found up to 96 hours after the incident. This report can’t confirm rape in this incident.”