The acting chief medical superintendent of the Joint District Hospital at Birsinghpur in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur district was booked on Monday for making allegedly objectionable remarks about Chief Minister Adityanath and the state government, reported The Indian Express.
Bhaskar Prasad was also suspended from service on Tuesday.
The action came after a purported video of a conversation Prasad had with protesters from the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday was widely shared online, according to the newspaper.
The protesters had been demonstrating outside the hospital against negligence and poor conditions at the facility. They had also threatened to hold a funeral procession with effigies of Prasad and the chief medical officer.
Prasad was purportedly heard telling the protesters to instead organise a procession or march against the state government and the chief minister, reported The Indian Express.
The FIR against Prasad was registered on the complaint of Bharatiya Janata Party district leader Shobhnath Yadav, who claimed that the doctor had made disparaging comments about the government, The Times of India reported.
Yadav alleged that Prasad had also made remarks that were not clearly audible in the video.
“Such behaviour from a government officer is disgraceful, reflecting gross indiscipline and negligence towards administrative duty,” the newspaper quoted the complaint as saying.
The FIR was registered under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to statements causing public mischief and intentional insult.
On Tuesday, Additional Chief Secretary (Medical Health) Amit Kumar Ghosh issued a suspension order against Prasad, citing violations of the Uttar Pradesh Government Servant’s Conduct Rules, 1956, Hindustan Times reported.
The order stated that Prasad was suspended for using indecent language about the state government, making objectionable comments, prescribing medicines to patients that were to be purchased from an outside store, ignoring biomedical waste disposal standards and violating service conduct rules.
Prasad has denied using abusive or derogatory language, saying he had been “framed” and that the remarks were being taken out of context, The Indian Express reported.
“Over the last three years, some of my close family members, including my wife, passed away and I got upset when the AAP leader used the word ‘arthi (bier)’ and said they would take out my funeral procession,” he told the newspaper. “I merely reacted, saying why would they take out my procession… they should take out one against the government instead.”
He added that he would approach the courts to seek relief from the charges against him and his subsequent suspension.
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