Delhi health minister orders high-level inquiry into hospital staff molestation case

The Delhi government has taken the cognizance of the sensational allegations of molestation and harassment of women employees at a government hospital in Delhi’s Burari area. Health Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj on Sunday directed the chief secretary to constitute a committee headed by the health secretary to carry out a detailed inquiry into the matter.

The incident came to fore, after a woman contractual worker, working as a housekeeping staff in the Burari Government Hospital, gave a complaint to the police, accusing her manager and three other supervisors of molesting and sexually harassing her and two other women employees.

Health Minister has sought preliminary report within 24 hours

Following the complaint, the North Delhi police booked all the four accused under relevant sections of the IPC and initiated an inquiry. As per police sources, all the four accused belong to a firm that provides multitasking manpower to the hospital.

The minister said that he learnt from social media that some unfortunate incident related to outraging the modesty of women and sexual harassment of outsourced workers has been reported at the Burari hospital. He clearly said that such incidents cannot be tolerated in any condition.

Earlier, the complainant had claimed that the four accused molested and harassed her and two other female employees on various occasions. As per allegations, the accused not only molested the women employees, but also threatened to sack them if they did not agree to their unreasonable demands.

The health minister has directed the chief secretary to submit a preliminary report in 24 hours, while direction has been given to submit the final report within a week. The minister said he has learnt that the services of accused supervisors and managers have been terminated by the outsourcing firm.

Meanwhile, the BJP said it is regrettable that it took over two days for Bharadwaj to wake up. 

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva alleged that this is not the first incident of sexual offence in a government hospital in the national capital. A few months ago, a nurse was allegedly raped in GB Pant Hospital.