An on-duty nurse was allegedly molested by a male patient at a government-run health centre in Ilambazar of Birbhum district in West Bengal on Saturday night.
The incident comes at a time when nationwide protests are underway over the August 9 rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in state capital Kolkata.
In Birbhum, the patient reportedly touched the nurse ‘inappropriately’ while she was administering saline to the man, who was brought on a stretcher due to high fever and was accompanied by members of his family.
In her complaint to the police, the nurse also claimed that the man used ‘offensive language’ towards her.
“The patient was brought in during the night shift with a fever complaint. As advised by the doctors, I was preparing to administer saline to him when he misbehaved. He touched me and used foul language. We feel unsafe working here due to the lack of proper security. How could a patient act in such a way?”.
Authorities at the centre promptly informed police who arrived and arrested the accused.
Meanwhile, attacking West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee over the Birbhum incident, Amit Malviya of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), shared on X (formerly Twitter) a list of four incidents of sexual assault, including the Birbhum one, ‘on the first day of September’ in West Bengal.
The BJP has been protesting aggressively against Banerjee, who also heads the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), over the RG Kar case and the issue of women safety in the eastern state.
