Perhaps justice bends to the situation, says spl prosecutor removed from Payal Tadvi case

MUMBAI: “Perhaps justice bends to the situation,” says advocate Pradip Gharat. His words, perhaps, explain more than his abrupt removal as special public prosecutor from the high-profile Payal Tadvi case; they reflect the utter anguish of the family of the second year resident doctor who died by suicide allegedly due to ragging at the Topiwala National Medical College attached to the BYL Nair Hospital in Mumbai.

Payal’s death in 2019 made headlines across the country, triggering protests and fuelling conversations around caste-based harassment in universities. The 26-year-old, from the Tadvi-Bhil scheduled tribal community in Jalgaon district, was allegedly driven to take this extreme step due to caste-based harassment from three senior resident doctors – Dr Hema Ahuja, Dr Bhakti Mehare and Dr Ankita Khandelwal – who were arrested and later released on bail.

On March 7, Gharat was summarily removed from the case. The state offered no explanation, it released no media statement. Payal’s family and Gharat himself believe it was a calculated move, coming as it did only a week after the special court trying the case allowed a plea moved by Gharat in November last year, to add Dr Ching Ling Chiang, former HOD of the obstetrics and gynaecology department, as an accused in the case. The plea, a turning point in the trial, was allowed on February 28 by the special court constituted under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

Dr Ling was Payal’s immediate superior and Gharat said he had moved the application to add her as an accused based on the Anti-Ragging Committee’s report. The committee had held Dr Ling complicit in the death as she had failed to act on complaints from Payal and her family. Dr Ling, Gharat was to argue, was guilty of abetment to suicide.

“That may not have been liked by the state,” says Gharat. “Once the police file the material before the court, it is within my executive power to reuse the material as a special prosecutor.”

Gharat’s removal – he has been replaced by advocate Mahesh Mule – has greatly distressed Payal’s family, including her husband and mother. They are convinced the move is linked to the addition of Dr Ling as an accused. “Pressure might have come from some quarters, due to which the state government removed him from the cases” says Payal’s mother Abeda Tadvi.

When the 59-year-old cancer survivor received the news about Gharat’s termination from the case, she was determined to fight it. On March 10, she wrote to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, requesting the state to reinstate Gharat. “Advocate Gharat was associated with the case for almost four years. He was well versed with the case and had done well, and we were confident that we would get justice for our daughter,” said the letter.

Dr Salman Tadvi, Dr Payal’s husband, says Gharat was appointed to lead the prosecution case after the family requested it. “Several activists, friends and family members felt it was the right decision, and we wrote to the state law and judiciary department, asking for advocate Gharat to be made as SPP in our case,” he recalls.

According to the rules under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, the victim’s family is allowed to have a say in the selection of the special public prosecutor in their case, explained Dr Salman, a lecturer at the civic-run Cooper Hospital in Mumbai.

Payal’s family is now confronted by new questions – will Gharat’s removal have an adverse impact on the prosecution’s case? Will the new prosecutor adopt a new strategy?

Abeda Tadvi says she will never forget Dr Ling’s response when she and other family members repeatedly approached her to complain about Payal’s seniors. “On May 12, 2019, when I went to meet Dr Ling, she refused to listen to me and told me that Payal would have to tolerate this if she wanted to continue her course.”

Special Sessions Judge SM Tapkire had observed that “prima-facie it revealed initially the victim as well as her relatives/informant and husband of victim had raised their grievance complaints with proposed accused (Dr Ling). However, proposed accused had failed to take cognisance of illegal ultra-vires unjustifiable, unconsiderable behave conduct of trio accused”. The court went through the report of the Anti-Ragging Committee as well, which had found that Dr Ling had failed to inform the college administration about the alleged ragging of the three senior doctors.

On the appointment of Mahesh Mule as the new special public prosecutor, Abeda Tadvi remarks, “That is a name not known to us.” She adds, “Advocate Gharat had already argued on the grounds of framing of charges, and the trial was about to begin.”

Both Abeda Tadvi and Dr Salman Tadvi fear the change in special public prosecutors may slow the proceedings. “At this crucial stage, the state has removed him (Gharat). This means the state doesn’t want us to get justice,” alleges Dr Salman Tadvi. “We plan to visit the chief minister before the next hearing (scheduled for March 20), to put forth our demand to reinstate advocate Gharat in our case.”

As Payal’s family pursues justice, she is already an inspiration to young girls in Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribal communities. The young resident doctor had lofty dreams, which is why she enrolled with the Topiwala National Medical College in Mumbai to pursue a Master’s degree. “In our community, women are often unable to pursue an education. We gave Payal an education, and she told us she wanted to become a doctor,” says her mother, Abeda Tadvi. “How long should we wait for justice?”