Payal Tadvi death case: Bombay HC allows Crime Branch to quiz 3 prime accused for four days

The Bombay High Court on Thursday allowed the Crime Branch to quiz three doctors of Nair Hospital in connection with the Payal Tadvi death case.

A single judge bench presided by Justice S S Shinde granted partial custody of accused doctors Hema Ahuja, Ankita Khandelwal and Bhakti Mehre allowing them to interrogate the trio for a period of four days.

The Crime Branch can interrogate and investigate for four days starting from today from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and from Friday till Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The trio is currently under the judicial custody and is booked under the charges of abetment of suicide and various provisions of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.

The investigation agency had knocked the doors of the high court seeking their custody after a trial court sent the three prime accused persons to judicial custody and the Crime Branch could not get enough time to interrogate them.

The death case of the Post Graduate medical student was transferred to the Crime Branch from the Agripada police station on May 30.

Tadvi, who belonged to the Scheduled Tribe community, ended her life in her hostel room at BYL Nair Hospital here on May 22, allegedly after facing harassment from her seniors due to her caste.

The post-mortem examination report of Dr Tadavi's death released on Wednesday revealed the evidence of a ligature mark on her neck. Under 'provisional cause of death,' the post-mortem examination report stated 'evidence of ligature mark over the neck.