Churu (Rajasthan): The Rajasthan Police have filed an FIR against three staff members, including a female doctor of a private hospital in Churu district after screenshots of a WhatsApp group chat purportedly showed them making disparaging remarks against a particular community.
According to reports, the staff worked at the Srichand Baradiya Rog Nidan Kendra in Sardarshahar town of the district, and were part of the WhatsApp group named 'BARDIA RISE'.
Over the past few days, screenshots from the group chat have gone viral. The screenshots purportedly showed the members talking about not attending to patients from a particular community. The messages showed that the members justified doing so by saying that most COVID-19 cases came from that community.
Mahendra Dutt Sharma, the station house officer of Sardarshahar police station, said that the police have filed an FIR against three hospital staff, including a doctor and a compounder.
He added that the accused have been booked under Sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code, along with relevant sections of the Disaster Management Act.
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The police have launched further investigation into the matter, the cop added.
Meanwhile, Dr Sunil Choudhary, who also works at the Srichand Baradiya Rog Nidan Kendra, apologised for the group chats via a Facebook post.
Choudhary wrote that his staff neither had the intention to hurt the sentiments of any religious community, nor refuse treatment to them.
Apologising on behalf of the staff members, Choudhary added that the hospital will not give the people any reason to complain in the future.
