The release of Shiv Sena corporator Ramesh Mhatre from jail has brought a fresh spotlight to a shocking attack on frontline healthcare workers. Mhatre, a prominent member of Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC), walked out of jail after a bail order from the Bombay High Court. But the circumstances of his release and the grave nature of the criminal charges have set off a nationwide debate and intense scrutiny on accountability and the political perks of high-profile personalities.
The origins of this legal dispute date back to a bloody spat in a hospital in Dombivli, Thane District on July 6. Police and court documents show that Mhatre and several of his friends (who are Ramesh Pawar, Pramod alias Prakash Nikam, and Akshay Karande) stormed the hospital after a dispute over the treatment of a pregnant woman. The hospital staff asked that the patient be shifted to another place because they had filled the entire neonatal intensive care unit beds. Mhatre and his friends verbally and physically assaulted three on-duty medical personnel, including a female resident medical officer and two male doctors, who had been working as staff members on the hospital ward.
The brutal assault sent shock waves through the medical community and led to massive anger, protests, and safety fears for doctors in Maharashtra. The scale of the crime was only compounded by reports that the targeted woman doctor was so traumatized by the event that she resigned from her job out of fear. Local police arrested Mhatre on July 8. He was found to have been taken in for bail at Thane local court on July 14, but a local court in Thane gave him bail on July 14 as soon as he was admitted to hospital, but the case got the attention of the higher judiciary. Holding a high suo motu hearing on the case, the Bombay High Court stayed the lower court’s ‘perverse’ bail order on July 18, stating that the magistrate had taken the matter far too lightly in finding Mhatre guilty when the case was not as serious as it was when he had been arrested in the past. Mhatre surrendered on July 19 and was sent to Kalyan’s Aadharwadi Jail.
A high court bench consisting of Acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad made the case for conditional bail to the judiciary in the recent high court. The court also issued a scathing judgment on the conduct of elected officials and said that the representatives are supposed to serve the public rather than terrorize them. The court said that when an elected corporator physically assaults his own voters and medical personnel, it is in violation of democratic values. As an attempt to keep justice going and the investigation going, the court imposed strict conditions on Mhatre and his co-accused to stay outside the state of Maharashtra, primarily Goa, until the chargesheet is complete and for a fast-track trial to be completed, the state must appoint a Special Public Prosecutor and local authorities must continue to provide police protection to the victim doctors.
In spite of these rigorous judicial protections, Mhatre's release from jail generated immediate controversy. That the man was released just an hour late in the evening with a crowd of people and an Innova waiting at the gates was just one more example that politically connected people are always in charge. And as the case moves into a fast-track trial, it is a critical test of institutional resolve in protecting public servants and the rule of law against political high-handedness.
