Alipore: The police officer who had allegedly assaulted a junior doctor at CMRI on Wednesday evening met the complainant and expressed regret on Friday.
Pulak Dutta, the officer-in-charge of Jadavpur police station, spent an hour with Srinivas Geddam, a postgraduate trainee at the Ekbalpore hospital, at the office of the deputy commissioner of police, south, said Supratim Sarkar, additional commissioner of police (III).
Dutta and Geddam had tea and shook hands before leaving the office of deputy commissioner Meraj Khalid.
"The DC, south, took the initiative and asked Dutta and Geddam to visit his office around 3pm and sort out the issue through talks. Dutta told Geddam that he was sorry for pushing him," a senior officer said.
The complaint, however, has not been withdrawn and the police investigation is on. "We are conducting the inquiry," said Sarkar.
The hospital had on Wednesday night lodged a complaint against Dutta with Alipore police station. The next day Geddam and other junior doctors handed separate complaints, addressed to the officer-in-charge of the police station, to Khalid's office.
Dutta had got himself admitted to CMRI early on Wednesday after suffering a wrist injury and underwent surgery in the afternoon. That night he allegedly slapped Geddam and grabbed his neck after the postgraduate trainee, originally from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, apparently asked him about his medicines.
An officer had told Metro on Thursday that Dutta had denied having assaulted any doctor. The accused had got himself discharged from CMRI and admitted to Ruby hospital on Thursday.
"The complaint was that the doctor had been assaulted by the officer. If the officer and the doctor have amicably settled the issue, then we have no role to play," said Uttam Bose, chief executive officer of the CK Birla group of hospitals, which runs CMRI.
A surgeon at CMRI, however, said he did not think an apology was enough. "Pulak Dutta should be treated like any other civilian. There should be a fair investigation and if found guilty, the officer should be punished," he said.
"Had a doctor hit the OC, he would have been arrested. They would not have asked the doctor whether he had high blood pressure."
Dutta has said in a post on Calcutta police's Facebook page that he had high blood sugar and blood pressure. Later in the post, the police authorities said: "If a hypertensive patient, in pain hours after surgery, loses his cool for some reason, we believe the majority of doctors will view it with sympathy."
Some doctors at other hospitals expressed solidarity with the complainant. "On July 1 (doctors' day), police officers had visited private hospitals and given flowers to doctors. That was a good gesture. But this (the alleged assault) has put things back," a surgeon at a private hospital off EM Bypass said.
Santanu Sen, secretary, IMA, Bengal, said: "There was a misunderstanding. If it has been amicably settled, there's nothing like it."
