A female doctor working at the Municipal Urban Health Centre (MUHC) was mishandled by a BJP corporator, Vipul Patel alias ‘Somabhai’ in Ahmedabad city of Gujarat.
According to the sources, the corporator asked Dr Sonal Pandor to drink dirty water from the bottle by holding it to her mouth. This incident caused resentment among the employees of the Municipal corporation.
Police filed an FIR against the BJP corporator under IPC sections 323, 332, 353, 354 and 506 (2) after a complaint from the doctor.
Taking cognisance of the whole situation, Mayor Kiritkumar J Parmar, AMC’s BJP in-charge Dharmendra Shah, BJP President, Ahmedabad Amit Shah, Deputy Municipal Commissioner Praveen Chaudhary, MOH Dr Bhavin Solanki and a few others formed an inquiry committee and conducted a two-and-a-half-hour meeting to pacify the whole incident.
The Deputy Municipal Commissioner and other officials were also a part of the meeting.
The FIR sustained- “Dr Sonal, working at the Naroda Urban Health Centre was engaged in her routine affairs. The corporator Vipul Patel arrived with his driver Bodabhai Darbar and a few other men and then asked the doctor- ‘Why don’t you answer our own patients? When Luv Bharwad’s mother came to pick up her report then why did you ask her to visit later? To which the doctor replied- ‘We were supposed to just check the health of the patients, we don’t produce reports here!’ This reply enraged the corporator and he started misbehaving.”
The FIR report also held that – “A few minutes later, Kailas Bharwad and his wife Manishaben Bharwad, mother of Luv Bharwad visited the place. The whole matter turned into an argument. The corporator started behaving inappropriately with the doctor and used improper language against her.”
The later part of the report stated- “He forced the doctor to apologise. Using force, he held her mouth and asked her to drink the dirty water.”
The women employees of Ahmedabad’s Urban Health Centre held a heavy protest against the BJP corporator Vipul Patel.
Several placards demanding his resignation were displayed by the staff.
The Standing Committee Chairman Hitesh Barot has asked the members of the corporation to investigate the case and submit a report.
Earlier, a corporator from BJP’s Isanpur ward (2015 to 2020) had threatened a shopkeeper saying, ‘I am Gabbar Singh. If you want to complain, then do it. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Amit Shah will not be able to harm me.” Pulkit Vyas was expelled by the BJP High Command from both the councillor post and the party.
