Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday ordered the termination of the practising licence of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences senior resident doctor, who has been accused of sodomising an eight-year-old brain tumour patient.
The order came following submission of report by the three-member panel which prima facie found him guilty. The minister has also directed the Medical Council of India to annul the MBBS degree of the accused doctor, so that he is not able to practice in future.
Confirming the action, AIIMS spokesperson, Dr Y.K. Gupta, said that taking cognisance of the committee’s report, the health minister, in his capacity as the President of the premier institute, issued the order.
“The doctor Shrijoy P. Joshua has been found guilty on the basis of circumstantial evidence and basic investigation. The registration of his M.Ch (Masters of Chirurgical) degree has been cancelled and his practising licence has been terminated,” a senior member of the institute’s Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) said.
Mr Azad is understood to have taken the stiff decision, which is said to be the first of its kind to be reported in AIIMS, to keep intact the faith in the institute in the minds of crores of Indians.
Further, another committee has been constituted under director, health services, Dr R.K. Srivastava, that will keep track of the further proceedings in the case.
The doctor working in the neurology department had allegedly sexually abused the boy on January 23, a day before he was to be discharged from the hospital after his surgery, the family of the victim had alleged.
The complaint said the doctor took the child to the duty room and abused him sexually.
The police had on Monday registered a case in this regard and the probe is on.
The boy, a resident of Hardevpuri, northeast Delhi, was admitted to the hospital on January 18 and had undergone a brain tumour surgery two days later.
After the matter was brought to the notice of the hospital authorities, AIIMS administration ordered an inquiry by a panel, headed by senior doctor A.C. Ammini, which submitted its report on Wednesday.
While the victim’s parents have expressed satisfaction over the decision taken by the authorities, they have also demanded monetary compensation saying that the child has undergone trauma due to the abuse incident.
The child is being counselled at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences.