Authorities in Bihar, India, arrested three men on Thursday after an incident in a private hospital in which a doctor and several other staffers attempted to gang-rape a nurse. The nurse escaped, multiple reports noted, by using a surgical blade to cut the doctor’s genitals.
Dr. Sanjay Kumar Sanju is one of three people arrested for the attempted rape, according to the Hindustan Times. Citing the police report, the newspaper reported that the men involved had been consuming alcohol and committed several acts that indicate a premeditated attempt to rape the woman. It is not clear from reports at press time if police believe the men intended to otherwise hurt or kill the nurse in question. The men are reportedly facing charges directly related to the attack as well as the charge of consuming alcohol, which is illegal in Bihar.
The harrowing details of the alleged assault follow weeks of political turmoil in India over the threat of rape consistently looming over Indian healthcare workers. Indian women doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals have denounced the government and private medical facilities for not offering enough security to prevent sexual assault and the killing of staff in hospitals.
A nationwide doctor’s strike erupted in August in response to the rape and murder of a resident doctor in Kolkata that occurred while she attempted to nap in a hospital seminar room. Despite the suspect not working in the hospital and the hospital being fully operational during the rape and murder, no one intervened to protect the woman or stop the accused, Sanjoy Roy, from entering doctors’ space in the complex.
While the nationwide strike has subsided, a local doctors’ strike in Kolkata has persisted through this week.
India Today reported that the survivor of the Bihar incident was a nurse employed at the RBS Health Care Centre in Gangapur, Bihar, for ten to 15 months. Police reportedly found her hiding in an empty field.
“The nurse … recounted how the doctor, a physiotherapist, and his two associates had been drinking before they began harassing her,” India Today narrated, citing the police report. “When she resisted the doctor’s advances, she initially struggled to fend him off. In an act of self-defense, she used a surgical blade to attack the doctor, giving her a chance to escape and call for help.”
“The presence of mind and courage shown by the survivor is praiseworthy,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar Pandey told reporters.
The Hindustan Times reported that police “found blood-stained bedsheets, mobile phones and alcohol bottles from the hospital,” corroborating the nurse’s story, and they found that the clinic’s private camera system had been disabled, potentially by the attackers to eliminate evidence of the crime.
In addition to Dr. Kumar, two men identified as Sunil Kumar Gupta and Awadhesh Kumar are in police custody over the incident.
The incident occurs as India stands in the throes of a nationwide controversy prompted by a similar incident in which the victim did not survive. In early August, a 31-year-old resident working at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, a government facility in Kolkata, attempted to nap in a seminar room of the hospital when a man identified as Sanjoy Roy attacked her, raping and killing her. The woman was found with a broken neck and “eye injuries” suggesting extreme violence during the last moments of her life.
Roy reportedly confessed immediately to the crime. The man was known to locals for spending significant time in the hospital and often acting inappropriately to women working there, but he did not work there nor was he related to any patients. It is unclear why he was allowed to loiter on the premises. Roy claimed to be a “civic volunteer” with Kolkata with police and reportedly often impersonated a police officer despite having no legitimate law enforcement authority.
Police later told reporters that Roy’s phone contained “quite disturbing and violent” pornographic content, to which he was reportedly addicted. No evidence suggests anyone in a position of authority at the government-run hospital attempted to ban Roy from the premises despite widespread reports that he was, at best, a nuisance to those working there and ultimately a major threat.
Doctors nationwide went on strike to protest the gruesome rape and murder, and several protests in August became violent. In one such incident, unknown individuals described as “miscreants” unaffiliated with the protesting doctors reportedly attacked the medical hospital in Kolkata, ransacking the site and causing significant property destruction. Several “miscreants” also destroyed police vehicles and physically beat the protesting doctors.
“A mob of miscreants entered the hospital. The agitating doctors were attacked and had to flee,” senior resident Subhendu Mullick told the Indian World Is One News agency (WION). “They even tried to enter the building where the junior doctor was raped and murdered. Police stood as mute spectators.”
While calls for a nationwide doctors’ strike largely subsided by the end of August, doctors in Kolkata remain off-duty, disobeying a court order to get back to work.
“Protesters have set up camp outside the state’s health department headquarters, voicing five key demands: justice for the victim, the removal of senior police officials, and enhanced security for health workers, among them,” the BBC reported on Wednesday. Local government officials have blamed the striking doctors for at least 23 deaths.