Bhim Army protests outside Nair Hospital, alleges Payal Tadvi was murdered

Ashok Kamble, president of the Maharashtra unit of Bhim Army on Wednesday protested outside BYL Nair Hospital alleging Dr Payal Tadvi's death was not due to suicide but she was "murdered". He also demanded action under 'Prevention of Atrocities Act' be carried out against the officers who were suspended by the hospital administration and strictest of punishment for the three accused.

"We have got some information which reveals that it is not a suicide case but murder since there are some marks on Payal's upper back, we are waiting for the postmortem reports. We came to know through media that three accused have been arrested and some concerned officials were also suspended. We demand the Atrocities act be put on the suspended officials too, we are holding protests to demand the same," he said.

Kamble laid out the three demands of the Bhim Army, he said, "We want death sentence for the people accused in the death of Payal Tadvi other than that we also want the officials to be taken to task. We also want all the SC/ST students in the Nair hospital to be asked whether they are facing any harassment here."

On being asked about Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad's plan to join the protests in support of the late Dr Payal Tadvi Kamble, he said that he was supposed to arrive by May 30 if the administration failed to deliver justice and also conveyed the warning of his chief.

"Chandrashekhar Azad has said that he will come to Mumbai by May 30 if proper action is not taken against the three accused and other guilty. He has also warned that any disruption in the city after his arrival would be the responsibility of the state government," Kamble said.

All the three accused doctors in the case- Ankita Khandelwal, Bhakti Mehre and Hema Ahuja have been arrested and are likely to be produced before the court today. Mehre and Ahuja were arrested on Tuesday.

The three doctors were arrested for allegedly abetting the post-graduate medical student Tadvi, who belonged to the Scheduled Tribe community, to end her life on May 22.