Bhubaneswar, April 21: After the cops, doctors are now facing disciplinary proceedings for alleged negligence in providing treatment to the Pipili gangrape victim.

Odisha health minister Prasanna Acharya said disciplinary proceedings had been initiated against three government doctors for dereliction of duty.

“A three-member disciplinary committee has been constituted, headed by the director of medical education and training. Action will be taken against the accused doctors if they are found guilty,” he said.

If found guilty, the doctors could be booked under sections 15 and 17 of the Odisha Civil Service Rules, sources said.

The three government doctors facing disciplinary proceedings are Santosh Kumar Tripathy and Jamini Bhusan Patnaik of Pipili Community Health Centre and Milan Mitra of Capital Hospital.

The disciplinary proceedings have been initiated by the Odisha government on the recommendation of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes to take stringent action against the erring doctors.

There were allegations that the three doctors, who had initially treated the gangrape victim, did not send her for medical examinations on the day she was admitted to the hospital though she was found lying naked and unconscious in the paddy field.

Taking cognisance of the allegation, commission’s chairman P.L. Punia in his report had observed that the doctors had apparently tried to “destroy the evidence” and “failed to discharge their legal duties”.

The chargesheet, filed by Crime Branch on March 10, said that there was no evidence of sexual assault in the Pipili gangrape case.

The Crime Branch officials, however, said that investigation had been kept open to examine the victim when she is able to record her statement and to assess the culpability of the local police officers and doctors.

The victim is still lying in a state of coma at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.

The gangrape incident had caused a state-wide uproar, forcing the government to dismiss the then inspector in charge of Pipili police station, Amulya Champatiray, from service and also transfer Puri superintendent of police A.N. Sinha.

Pipili MLA Pradeep Maharathy, who was then the Odisha agriculture minister, had to resign from his post in the wake of allegation that he was harbouring the culprits involved in the gangrape.

The Crime Branch, which subsequently took over the case from the local police, arrested four persons, including the prime accused.

This is not the only case of its kind involving alleged negligence by the doctors.

There have been numerous such instances in the past, but most of the times, the government did not find itself in a situation to take action against them.

Various doctors’ associations also kept threatening the Odisha government to ensure that no punitive action was taken against their members. The doctors’ associations, however, have failed to ensure regular attendance of doctors in government hospitals.