A senior resident doctor at a government hospital in Shimla, the capital of India’s northern state of Himachal Pradesh, has been suspended and charged by police after a viral video appeared to show him repeatedly striking a patient inside a ward, triggering an investigation and widespread public backlash.
The mobile phone footage, filmed by an attendant at the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital on Monday and widely shared on social media, shows a masked doctor punching a man lying on a bed, while another staff member appears to restrain the patient’s legs as he tries to fend off the blows.
Police have since filed a formal criminal complaint against Dr Raghav Narula, 31, a senior resident in the pulmonary medicine department, while hospital authorities have set up a three-member committee to examine the incident and determine responsibility.
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The patient, identified as Arjun Panwar, 36, has alleged that the confrontation began after he objected to being addressed using “tu”, an informal Hindi form of “you”, and asked the doctor to speak more respectfully.
“I had just undergone a bronchoscopy and was struggling to breathe. When I asked for oxygen, the doctor questioned my admission status,” Panwar told NDTV, adding that the exchange escalated after he protested against what he described as rude behaviour.
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“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,” Panwar said, according to the broadcaster.