Guwahati: In another evil incident, a 73-year-old doctor of a tea estate in Assam was beaten to death by a mob of 250.
The victim Doctor Deven Dutta had retired long back and was serving on extension, was beaten to death by angry workers of the tea estate as he was not present when a temporary worker died at the estate hospital, NDTV reports.
Two days after the incident, the police have arrested 21 people involved in the mob lynching crime that occurred on Saturday in Assam’s tea estate Jorhat, 300 kms away from the main city Guwahati.
The Indian Medical Association has now called a strike, including withdrawal of emergency services, on Tuesday.
“The garden doctor was assaulted following the death of Somra Majhi, who was being treated at the estate’s hospital,” Jorhat Deputy Commissioner Roshni Aparanji Korati said.
Dr Dutta was not present when 33-year-old Somra Majhi was rushed to the estate hospital in a critical state on Saturday noon while the pharmacist was also on leave and the nurse on duty administered saline, however the worker died shortly.
When Dr Dutta arrived at 3:30 pm, the angry mob thrashed him and locked him up in a room in the hospital, they also injured him suing glass shards.
Though the police reached the spot to rescue, the doctor died on the way to the hospital.
Teok Tea Estate is a tea garden under Amalgamated Plantations Pvt Ltd, an enterprise carved out of Tata Tea Ltd.
The West Bengal Doctors’ Forum condemned the killing. “Dr Dutta had involved himself in the service of his community even after retirement. The people he served thanked him by murdering him in front of the police,” it said in a statement.
The doctors’ forum said that the community served by Dr Dutta “did not hesitate even once while beating him to extinction”.
The forum’s statement added: “It took paramilitary forces to evacuate an injured man… such is the strength of the mob in India. Such is the nature of gratitude and natural justice in India. Such is the state of security for medical practitioners in India. In glorious India, the mobs remain our future patients,” it read, adding that doctors are “not appreciated in India any longer”.