Dr Raghav Narula, suspended after a video of him thrashing a patient at Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) in Himachal Pradesh's Shimla went viral, says he has no regrets.
Speaking exclusively to NDTV, Dr Narula accused the patient of hurling abuses at him and his parents without provocation, and of attacking him with an iron rod and punches.
When Doctor, Patient Fought
On Monday, a video of a doctor physically assaulting a patient inside a ward went viral. The video shows the doctor pulling an iron rod from the patient's hands and hitting him. The patient, Arjun Panwar, then kicks the doctor away before being repeatedly hit while he lies on the bed.
Following the incident, a large crowd gathered at the hospital demanding action against the accused doctor.
A Fight Over "Tu"
The patient visited the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) for medical tests on Monday. After experiencing breathing difficulties, Panwar lay down on a bed in another ward.
"I had just undergone a bronchoscopy and was struggling to breathe. When I asked for oxygen, the doctor questioned my admission status," Panwar said.
The doctor allegedly started behaving rudely with him without any provocation. An argument broke out after Panwar protested the behaviour, and the doctor started hitting him.
"I requested that he speak to me with respect, but he became confrontational. He responded by saying, 'tu is just tu'. When I asked if he spoke to his family in such a manner, he claimed I was getting 'personal' and began hitting me," he claimed.
Recalling what led to the fight between the two, Dr Narula, a senior resident at IGMC, said the patient lost his cool over the usage of the word "tu" (an informal way of saying you). The doctor said he was checking Panwar's old x-rays and scans as per the protocol and remarked, "Tu dekha dekha lag raha hai (I think I have seen you somewhere)."
"He then lost his cool over why I addressed him as 'tu'. When I said that I have not used wrong words or tone, the patient got even more heated up, as did the person accompanying him. They then also used abusive language," the doctor added.
Speaking to NDTV, the doctor said the whole incident, especially what the patient said or did before the fight broke out, has not been recorded on camera.
"You are seeing 10-15 seconds of the fight, but the argument began five to 10 minutes before that and lasted nearly 10 hours after it. The patient behaved inappropriately and was abusing me and my family. He started hitting me with an iron rod and then threw kicks and punches. After the fight, around 300 people showed up at the hospital and damaged the administrative block," the doctor said, adding that he has no regrets.
"I do not regret what I did. A First Information Report (FIR) is based on the (viral) video. Nobody ever asked me what happened to me. The circumstances that were created made me act in self-defence," he added.
Investigation Underway
The Resident Doctors' Association of IGMC defended the accused doctor on Tuesday, claiming that patient "misbehaved and used abusive language" against the doctor and his family when asked about his medical records. The association alleged that the patient started the fight and demanded an impartial enquiry into the incident.
Superintendent of Police (Shimla district) Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi told ANI, "All aspects of the case are being examined, including medical records and electronic evidence, such as the video footage. Strict action will be taken as per law, based on the findings of the investigation."
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