THIRUVANANTHPURAM: Kerala Government Med-ical Officers Association (KGMOA) on Tuesday said registration of case under the provisions of POCSO against a gynaecologist of district hospital Kozhenchery was cruel. KGMOA demanded strict action against the cops who framed the doctor. At a time when there is no provision to take a case under POCSO against medical officers, the cops have registered an FIR. KGMOA said even the High Court had called for an explanation from the police officer concerned who registered the FIR under POCSO Act. “The police officer concerned will have to explain how and why he registered the present FIR under Section 27 of the POCSO Act. If he happened to do it on any advice, let him furnish the details,” the court order said.
KGMOA said police officers should stop the practice of creating non existing provisions under the Act on their own and register false cases against doctors. It is time police officers received awareness classes across the state about the actual provision of the POCSO Act,” said KGMOA state secretary K.A. Raoof. The KGMOA warned that such highhandedness on the part of the police in invoking stringent provisions would only result in shattering the confidence of doctors and forcing them to think twice while taking up emergency patient care activities.
In this particular instance, the government needs to make it clear whether the doctors on duty should have kept aside all patient care activities that they were doing to examine a girl who was sexually assaulted three months ago. Dr Raoof said the state was witnessing a series of attacks on the hospitals and health professionals. The police has been invariably indifferent to attacks on hospitals and doctors and rarely they book the culprits behind such violent incidents. Under whose pressure is the police disregarding the complaints filed by doctors ? he asked.
KGMOA threatened to launch direct action against such attacks on the medical professionals. Rights activists had alleged that the police had registerd the FIR under Section 27 of POCSO Act. Two doctors had allegedly refused to examine a five year old child who was sexually abused. She was made to wait for six hours at the hospital. District collector who probed the matter found the allegations to be true. Subsequently health minister K K Shailaja directed health secretary to take appropriate action. The two doctors were placed under suspension.
