Dr Payal Tadvi suicide case: Bail plea of accused doctors rejected

MUMBAI: A special SC/ST Act court on Monday rejected bail pleas of the three doctors accused of abetting suicide of Dr Payal Tadvi on May 22 this year.
The trio, Hema Ahuja (28), Bhakti Mehare (26) and Ankita Khandelwal (27), have been in jail since their arrests on May 28-29.
They filed their pleas on June 4.
In a letter submitted to the court opposing the bail plea of the trio, the victim’s husband and family members on Friday said they feared a threat to their lives.The handwritten letter in Marathi was addressed to the police.
Gunratan Sadavarte, lawyer for the victim’s family, also alleged in court that the accused had threatened Tadvi’s husband, Dr Salman Tadvi, when they were brought for their custody hearing last week.
Defence advocate Abad Ponda urged the court to grant bail to the trio submitting they were women and doctors and had never imagined Tadvi would take her life. “They are doctors who save lives, they don’t take lives. Even in murder cases, courts give bail to women.” Ponda said their careers were finished. “We have the accusation on our head that someone has died. Who is going to marry us?” he said.
Countering the defence submissions, special public prosecutor Raja Thakare said, “You say your (accused) career is ruined, but their (family) life is ruined. Here is a young girl who lost her life. They (accused) are bothered about who will marry them. But what will be the fate of the mother and the young husband?”
He also said after the arrest of the first accused, Mehare, the two others should have surrendered and not made the police run after them and track them down.
The defence said that there was no instigation on part of the accused. “They never wanted to kill or expected she would die or kill herself. They were only pulling her up for work,” Ponda said. “Assuming we even went overboard and did bullying, will it amount to abetment? He also denied the accused were aware of Tadvi’s caste.
Thakare, however, said the accused had subjected Tadvi to continuous harassment, humiliation and torture. He said they were aware of her caste.