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Following Criticism, AMU Extends Tenure of Sacked Doctors

Aligarh: After extreme criticism in the media and the social media, the (AMU)  Aligarh Muslim University has consented to extend the tenure of the two (JNMC) Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College doctors, who had their services  ‘terminated’ for their comments regarding the case of alleged gang-rape and death of a Dalit woman in Hathras.

AMU representative Omar Saleem Peerzada stated: “On the solicitation of the central clinical official of the emergency clinic, the college, on Thursday night, has given its gesture to the proposition to broaden the residency of the two specialists”.

The order finishing the contract of both the doctors- Dr Obaid Imtiaz and Dr Mohd Azeemudin – was given by Chief medical official SA Zaidi on Tuesday, a day after the CBI group investigating the rape and death case had visited the hospital.

The AMU officials have denied the claims of the termination ‘largely speculative’ and said both the doctors were engaged in ‘on a temporary one-month vacation from September 9’.

The Resident Doctors Association (RDA) had furthermore composed a letter to the AMU Vice-Chancellor and asked him to take immediate actions to pull back the termination order.

The letter signed by RDA president Mohammad Hamza Malik and general secretary Mohammad Kaashif expressed that the motion against the two doctors slapped of ‘vendetta politics’ and was targeted at suppressing the right to freedom of expression.

The two doctors had told journalists that they were very shocked by this step since they had not been allowed to introduce their view to the authorities.

In light of an inquiry by media people, they had indicated that action could be an outcome of them offering an opinion on the Hathras case.

The 19-year-old woman, who was attacked and allegedly raped by four men, was under treatment at the hospital prior to being referred to Delhi. She passed away at a Delhi hospital later.

The remarks of one of the doctors contradicted the Uttar Pradesh police’s stand that the FSL report for the case found no hints of sperm, showing that there was no rape. The doctor had apparently alleged the FSL report had no evidentiary purpose as samples were collected 11 days after the crime.

In the interim, President of the Progressive Medicos and Scientific Forum (PMSF ) Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti had likewise written to the AMU Vice Chancellor, requesting the ‘withdrawal of the termination order of two the medical officials’.

The letter, which was sent via mail on Thursday, expresses that it seems that the two doctors have ‘paid the price for providing factually correct and scientifically sound information pertaining to the samples of the Hathras rape victim’.

 

source: with input from ians