Masihuzzama Ansari | India tomorrow
ALIGARH(Uttar Pradesh)—Buckling under pressure from the Resident Doctors Association (RDA), the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) authorities on Thursday agreed to withdraw the termination orders of two casualty medical officers (CMO) and also allowed them to attend their duties.
The two CMOs-Dr. Azeem Malik and Dr. Obaid Imtiaz-who were terminated on Tuesday on the basis of an order issued by Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr. S A Zaidi-were asked to attend their duties today.
Speaking to India Tomorrow, Dr. Obaid said that he attended his duties of the morning shift. Dr. Azeem said that he attended his evening shift duty on Thursday. “However, we have not received any letter so far regarding withdrawal of our termination”, said Dr. Azeem.
AMU spokesperson Omar Saleem Peerzada also confirmed that the university authorities have reinstated the services of the two CMOs.
Resident Doctors Association (RDA) president Dr. Mohammad Hamza Malik, speaking to India Tomorrow, said that he had on Wednesday written a letter to Vice-Chancellor Dr. Tariq Mansoor, requesting him to withdraw the termination order of the two CMOs within 24 hours failing which RDA would convene a meeting and decide about the next course of action.
Defending the two doctors for giving statements to the media with regard to the forensic science laboratory(FSL) report of the Hathras Dalit woman victim on the basis of which the police claimed that the Dalit girl was not raped, Dr. Hamza said that the two doctors have studied forensic sciences and hence, their statements on it can’t be questioned. “Can VC say that the statements of the two doctors on FSL report are false?”, he asked.
The police had claimed that the FSL report did not find traces of sperm and it indicated that the girl was not raped. But Dr. Azeem told The Indian Express on October 5 that the FSL report had no evidentiary value because samples were collected 11 days after the incident of the crime. According to Dr. Azeem, samples have to be collected within 96 hours of the incident to prove the crime. The crime can’t be established if samples are taken after 96 hours. This contradicted the police claim and it brought UP police in bad light, indicating that police were trying to protect the accused persons who happen to be from the upper caste.
Dr. Hamza said that “it is possible that VC had acted at the behest of his political masters”.
He said, “As AMU is an autonomous institution, the VC must not work under government pressure”.
The 19-year-old Dalit girl was assaulted and allegedly raped by four youths of her village, all from the upper caste Thakur community. She was first admitted to AMU’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and then shifted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi where she died.
