Akhilesh Yadav calls Dr Payal Tadvi’s suicide a murder of constitutional safeguards

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has described the death of Payal Salman Tadvi, a medical student in Mumbai who belonged to a Scheduled Tribe, as a murder of the constitutional protection given to Scheduled Tribes.

Akhilesh Yadav’s reaction

In a tweet, Yadav said the suicide of the bright young doctor from the Scheduled Tribe community was the result of remarks made against her caste and against the reservation system. He called it a case of murder, said it amounted to killing the safeguards guaranteed by the Constitution, and asked whether this was the direction in which the country was heading.

The case

Tadvi, 23, was a postgraduate student at the BYL Nair Hospital in Mumbai. She allegedly took her own life on May 22 after being harassed by three senior doctors, and was reportedly subjected to casteist slurs.

Her mother, Abeda Tadvi, alleged that three senior doctors, Hema Ahuja, Bhakti Mehar and Ankita Khandelwal, had persistently harassed her daughter, driving her to the extreme step. She told a news agency that her daughter had complained on the phone several times that the three tormented her because she was from a tribal community and used casteist words against her. The family, she said, only wanted justice.

Action so far

The hospital’s dean has received a notice from the Maharashtra State Commission for Women asking for a report on what action has been taken. An anti-ragging committee has been formed by the hospital administration to investigate. The three doctors have been suspended by the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), and they who on Monday wrote to the association asking for a fair inquiry.

See also: political leaders

Originally published on 28 May 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us