Rajkot: Two medical attendants were booked for sexual harassment of females in Jamnagar’s state-run GG Hospital following an FIR that was lodged with the police on Tuesday.
A formal police complaint in sexual harassment of medical attendants was lodged with B-division police station after one victim agreed to come forward.
Police are likely to arrest the accused on Wednesday after the due procedure.
According to police sources, LB Prajapati and Akbar Ali, both working as attendants, were allegedly involved n sexually harassing the victim.
The FIR states they used to touch the women inappropriately and resort to physical and unwelcome advancement that included disrobing, passing sexually coloured comments, obscene gestures etc.
They both were booked under IPC sections 354, 354a, 354b, 509 and 114.
Prajapati and Ali were both holding the same positions as the victim but the former was given the administrative powers which he allegedly misused to harass the victim.
“When the victim resisted his sexual advances, Prajapati used to publicly torture her by rebuking her on a small mistake.
He used to assign her night duty, which made her uncomfortable in her work,” said police.
A police officer quoting the contents of the FIR told TOI that Prajapati harassed the victims for more than six months till the time she left the job.
“The sexual consent was implied through the gestures though it was not directly demanded,” an officer said adding that “Since Prajapati was holding an informal position, he tried to disrobe the victim making her uncomfortable and traumatised.” Prajapati was assigned the powers like deciding the duty hours of the attendants, taking their presence, deciding their leave and others and he used to take on a round to see if the work other attendants were carrying out properly.
He had powers to report about anybody’s mistakes.
Police said the sexual harassment was committed inside the premise of GG hospital and it took them few days to convince the victim to register the FIR but she was scared if the issue blew up.
Meanwhile, the three-member committee appointed by district collector also submitted its report after recording the statement of nearly 10 women attendants and collecting the primary evidence.
The report is under consideration and based on the instructions of the government, more victims will be included in the FIR or some other separate FIRs may registered.
The committee submitted its report to the state government and it’s under consideration with the home ministry.