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KULLU: A doctor at Shimla’s Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGMC) was suspended on Monday after he brutally assaulted a patient, who protested at being called ‘tu’ and asked for some politeness. A video of the incident, shot by an attendant, shows a doctor in surgical mask repeatedly punching the patient, Arjun Panwar, 36, as he lay in bed. As the punches rained down, Panwar kicked out at the attacker, but another doctor tried to hold down his legs.Police have registered an FIR against Dr Raghav Narula, 31, a senior resident with the pulmonary medicine department of IGMC. The IGMC administration set up a three-member probe committee on directions from Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Sukhu, said IGMC medical superintendent Dr Rahul Rao. “Action will be taken on the basis of the probe report. Police are conducting their own inquiry,” said Rao. Narula was suspended late evening.Health minister Dhani Ram Shandil said “exemplary action” will be taken against the doctor. Asked about the second doctor, who was trying to hold the legs of the patient while Narula was raining blows at him, Shandil said, “An inquiry is being conducted to find out the involvement of the medical staff present in that ward at the time.” Panwar was brought to hospital for a bronchoscopy after complaining of shortness of breath. “After the test, I lay down on an empty bed in pulmonary ward as the doctors advised me to rest for a while. Dr Raghav came and started asking me about my medical reports. He called me ‘tu’. When I asked him if he speaks with his family members the same way, the doctor started beating me,” alleged Panwar.
