A Bengaluru sessions court on November 9 granted bail for the 12 activists, who were arrested for allegedly harassing a female doctor at Bengaluru’s Minto Eye Hospital. The VV Puram Police arrested the activists on November 8.

“Following the arrests made on November 8 the accused were produced before a city court which granted them conditional bail,” Dr Rohini Katoch Sepat, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru South said. It all started on November 1, when a mob of around 30 members of the group barged into the outpatient clinic at Minto Eye Hospital, located on the premises of Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru. The members alleged that they were there on behalf of a patient who had lost their vision due to a botched-up cataract surgery, and to ensure that the patient received the promised compensation.

In a video of the incident, a large group is seen swarming around the postgraduate student, who was one of the few doctors present in the clinic at the time. One person from the mob begins to question why the doctor didn’t speak in Kannada and spoke in English instead. The situation soon worsened and some of the women in the group physically assaulted the student doctor.

Doctors from the hospital and medical students from Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) took to protesting non-emergency services on November 8, demanding the arrest of the activists, who allegedly harassed the female doctor. A state-wide protest of outpatient clinics was also held on November 8 under the Indian Medical Association’s Karnataka branch. Following the arrest of the 12 individuals, IMA representatives announced that they would be calling off their strike as well.

“We wanted them to arrest the accused and they have done that,” said Dr Pooja, one of the members of the Resident Doctors Association (RDA) on the BMCRI campus. When the activists were produced in a local court, they were granted a conditional bail on furnishing a Rs 50,000 bond each and released.

This story was originally published on The News Minute and is reprinted here with permission. It can be viewed on https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/bengaluru-doctor-attack-12-pro-kannada-activists-who-were-arrested-get-bail-112018