Thiruvananthapuram: State Health Minister KK Shailaja has directed the department for the immediate suspension of a Junior Health Inspector in connection with the incident of sexual abuse of a woman who was under COVID observation, in Thiruvananthapuram District of Kerala, on Monday.
The Health Minister has directed the Health Department Director to take immediate action in the case.
The Police have already nabbed and arrested the accused. Junior Health Inspector Pradeep, a native of Pangode in Thiruvananthapuram, has been arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a woman who was under COVID observation in the district.
A police officer of the nearby Pangode police station said the 44-year-old woman, who was working as a home nurse at Malappuram, had returned to her home at Kulathupuzha recently and was asked to undergo quarantine by the health inspector.
The woman has been under COVID observation for the past many days had applied for the certificate on completion of the COVID quarantine. Pradeep, the accused JHI, had told the woman to reach his rented house to collect the certificate. According to the woman’s statement, when she reached the house, Pradeep tied her up and kept on sexually assaulting her for one full day.
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Meanwhile, the Women's Commission has on its own registered a case against the health inspector and directed the state Health secretary to initiate disciplinary action against him.
Condemning the incident, leader of the opposition in the state assembly Ramesh Chennithala said the two incidents of rape has brought shame to the state.
These incidents show the "serious lapses" on the part of the health department, he alleged.
This incident has come to light a day after a 19-year-old woman was raped by an ambulance driver as she was being shifted to a COVID care centre at Pandalam in Pathanamthitta district on Saturday midnight.
Inputs from PTI
