Private schedule radiologists on Wednesday staged a one-day strike to protest the arrest of a radiologist in Nanded under the rigorous sections of the IPC after an alleged abortion was carried out by a quack. The group of radiologists has claimed that radiologist Dr Gopal Battlawar’s arrest was “illegal” and said that they would take the issue to home minister R.R. Patil. They even threatened to hold a nation-wide protest if the “illegal action” against radiologists continues.
On Wednesday, radiologists stopped providing services like MRI, X-Ray, ultrasound and CT-scan across the states.
Dr Jignesh Thakker, secretary of MSBIRA, said, “Abortions are not the job of a radiologist, it’s the job of gynecologists and obstetricians. A radiologist cannot be held responsible for all terminated pregnancies, even if he had performed the sonography. Many a times, radiologists are harassed even for small mistakes in paperwork, but the actual culprits like gynecologists and obstetricians, who actually conduct the abortion, are not targeted.”
The radiologists are also planning to approach the court. Mr Thakker added, “We will take Nanded police’s action of arresting Dr Battlawar to the high court. They have arrested him on charges of revealing the sex of the foetus that led to the abortion; illegally without any proof, arrest warrant and investigation. The patient, who wanted the abortion, has been made witness against Dr Battlawar.”
Dr Battalwar was arrested under Sections 312, 315 and 316 of the IPC after one of his employees was found to have revealed the gender of an unborn child to a tribal couple, who got it aborted later by a quack. The radiologist claimed innocence saying that he had only performed an anomaly scan that determines if the child may be born with some defect.