Shanti Mukund Hospital Case

Raped September 6, 2003

A 19-year-old nurse was on duty at east Delhi's Shanti Mukund hospital one night, taking care of a comatose patient. She awoke in the middle of the night to find a ward boy, Bhura, trying to force himself on her.

When she resisted, Bhura plunged his fingers into her eyes, gouging out the right and wounding the left. He then dragged her to an adjacent bathroom, raped her and locked her in. She lay unconscious and bled through the night.

After she was found the next day, it took the hospital two hours to take her to the casualty ward. A report of the National Commission for Women on the rape and the treatment the nurse received noted that none of the four ophthalmologists of the hospital could be contacted at the time. The victim was taken to the gynaecology department, and then shifted to Guru Tegh Bahadur hospital after tests.

At GTB, she was examined by a second-year PG student and her senior. They merely noted the condition of the eye but did not examine it despite the serious injury. No X-ray was done, nor were any senior doctors called, even though it was a medico-legal case.

She was finally admitted to GTB hospital late at night, but despite her infected eye, kept in the general ward. Says Meenakshi Lekhi, the nurse's lawyer, "She was shunted from one hospital to another. There were lapses on the part of both."

Bhura was caught and, on May 4, 2005, sentenced to life imprisonment for sexual assault and for causing grievous hurt, and to one year for wrongfully confining a person. Just before sentencing, Bhura made an astounding proposal that he was willing to marry his victim if he was freed.

But the girl urged the court to give the severest of punishment to the convict so that "such a horrendous act is not repeated". The NCW held both hospitals culpable and liable to compensate the victim, and called for cancellation of Shanti Mukund's licence.

A case of negligence, filed by the victim against four doctors of Shanti Mukund Hospital, is currently in court. It's nearly three years but the girl, who has a temporary job at a Delhi hospital, is yet to overcome her trauma. Says Lekhi, "She's still waiting for compensation. Meanwhile, her family has spent a lot of money on her treatment.

She has undergone five to six operations and plastic surgery too, and wears a prosthesis in one eye. The other eye is still painful. Can she ever be compensated enough?"

ref:TOI