According to officials, the video was shot at a village in Sultanpur on Wednesday afternoon. In it, the accused, identified as Lalit Yadav, is seen pointing out “dog excreta” and other alleged issues at the centre. He is also heard saying that doctors are nowhere to be found.
Police in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur district Wednesday arrested a local resident, who claimed to be a journalist, after a nurse at an Auxiliary Nurse and Midwife (ANM) centre accused him of assault and misbehaviour. A video also went viral in which the accused is seen showing the condition of the centre and alleging lapses. The Chief Medical Officer has set up a panel to look into the allegations.
According to officials, the video was shot at a village in Sultanpur on Wednesday afternoon. In it, the accused, identified as Lalit Yadav, is seen pointing out “dog excreta” and other alleged issues at the centre. He is also heard saying that doctors are nowhere to be found.
“This hospital has opened today after six months,” he says in the clip. A nurse (ANM) is then seen hitting Yadav with her shoes and a stick, and trying to snatch the microphone from him. Though he claims to be a journalist in the video, the police have refuted the claim and said he is not registered as a journalist.
Yadav was, however, arrested after the ANM lodged a complaint at the concerned police station. In the complaint, she alleged that Yadav misbehaved with her after he entered a room at the centre with an illegal weapon. “He threw vaccines and demanded Rs 10,000… He also did some obscene acts while women were getting vaccinated,” she wrote in the complaint.
The police booked Yadav on Wednesday under IPC sections 384 (extortion), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and under Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984.
Sultanpur Superintendent of Police (SP) Somen Barma told The Indian Express that after the FIR was lodged, Yadav was arrested and sent to judicial custody. “The investigation is ongoing,” he said.
Another police officer said Yadav also lodged a complaint based on which a counter-FIR was lodged at the same station on Thursday. In his complaint, Yadav alleged that the ANM regularly missed her duty at the centre. “When I went to the centre and asked her why she is absent because of which people suffer, she started hitting me with chappals and sticks,” he says in the complaint.
He also alleged that the ANM’s family members chased and tried to beat him up, but he escaped with injuries. The case has been lodged under IPC sections 352 (assault), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation).
SP Barma said a probe is on in the second case as well, but no arrest has been made so far. “We can’t arrest the accused as Supreme Court guidelines say that under these sections, arrest should not be made,” said Barma.
Sultanpur Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr D K Tripathi has set up a committee to look into the allegations made by Yadav, officials added. Speaking to The Indian Express Friday, Dr Tripathi said, “I have constituted a committee with three senior doctors who will look into the matter and submit a report. Based on that, action will be taken.”
