18-year-old Silchar girl accuses doctor of touching her inappropriately

“It is not normal”- when an 18-year-old comes out of a doctor’s chamber and writes, “He touched me inappropriately” it is not normal; she mentions that the doctor she often visits to “crossed the line” it is not normal; when she gets pinched on her private parts, “it is definitely not normal”!!

A letter from an 18-year-old addressed to fellow females in Silchar or in fact anywhere in the world comes in as an alarming sign. A class XII student, suffering from illness visited a doctor in one of the most renowned chambers located in Rangirkhari. She was with her mother. According to her, the doctor had already crossed the line once before and made her feel uncomfortable by putting his hand inside her innerwear.

In her note, she mentions, when that happened she got confused – if it was a regular medical practice or something weird. Yesterday, she writes, the doctor made her feel uncomfortable once again and this time she was quite sure that the doctor was intentionally forcing him on her. The doctor, according to her is a 50 year old, who she has been visiting frequently these days owing to medical issues.

The letter was uploaded on social media and that caught attention of people across all age group. She did not reveal the identity of the doctor, the chamber, the time of her visit- all she wrote in the piece was that she felt uncomfortable and “that is not normal”. She also wrote that she is ashamed of the fact that she came out of the chamber doing nothing about it. Many appreciated her courage to come out and share her traumatic experience.

Senior advocate Bithika Acharjee, however, feels she should have lodged a police complaint Speaking to our correspondent she said, “In such cases the first step should be a police complaint. That would start the investigation which would reveal the truth.” Our correspondent asked Acharjee, what if the victim feels she does not have enough evidence to prove her point against a renowned doctor to which the veteran lawyer replied, “Generally in such cases you do not have an evidence to start with. The fact that a girl is coming out and accusing someone of something like this merits an investigation and for that a complaint is essential.”

Another senior advocate who wished not to be named, too said the first step should be an FIR. She also added that such letters on Facebook must not be encouraged as it can derail investigation and cause immense harm to the victim. “Whatever she stated in the letter, if it is true it is horrible and heinous. I completely understand her state of mind inside that chamber and thus she not reacting to it at that moment is what generally happens. But when she gathered courage to come out and speak about it, police complaint should have been the platform and not a social media platform,” added the lawyer.

We tried to reach out to the girl but could not speak to her. However, through her family sources we got to know that she did express a wish to lodge a police complaint but her family refused to support.