Ballia DM orders probe as video on spat between CMO and Nirbhaya's grandpa goes viral

In an incident that displays the utter lack of sensitivity of a medical official in Uttar Pradesh, the senior health officer in Ballia has been caught on camera misbehaving with a relative of Nirbhaya. The incident took place during a protest against unavailability of doctors at the hospital built in the Uttar Pradesh district in the name of the 2012 gang rape and murder victim.

Ballia (Uttar Pradesh):The Ballia district administration has launched a probe into allegations that the chief medical officer here misbehaved with the grandfather of the December 2012 Delhi gangrape-cum-murder victim Nirbhaya.

The district administration ordered the probe on Wednesday after a video clipping purportedly showing Ballia CMO Dr Preetam Mishra questioning the victim's grandfather Lalji Singh as to why did Nirbhaya go to Delhi.

The video also shows Dr Mishra stating that "no one from Nirbhaya's village pursued medical education, and people here need doctors".

"First complete medical education, and then become a doctor in this hospital itself," Dr Mishra is heard saying in the video.

"This village has not produced any doctor, then why a hospital has been opened here? From where would we bring doctors? The number of doctors is less than the posts available (in the hospital)," the CMO said.

In Nirbhaya's ancestral village Merhwaar Kala, a hospital was opened earlier after her name and local villagers had been staging a protest for the past few days for posting a doctor in the hospital and improving its condition.

The CMO had come to the village yesterday so that the protest could be called off.

District Magistrate Hari Pratap Shahi said he got the news about this through media.

"Orders have been issued to probe this incident, and accordingly action will be taken," the DM said.

A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.

The date of execution for the four surviving convicts of Nirbhaya gang-rape-cum murder case was first fixed for January 22 in Tihar jail but was postponed to 6 am on February 1. A trial court later, on January 31 stayed, "till further orders" the execution of the four convicts in the case, who are lodged in Tihar Jail.

Nirbhaya's parents and the Delhi government have now moved the court on Tuesday seeking fresh death warrants for the four convicts.

(With inputs from ANI and PTI)