South Asia Citizens Web | 15 September 2003

Complaint and Draft Petition seeking investigation against Dr. Pravin Togadia to the Medical Council of India

by Manisha Gupte, Amar Jesani, N. Sarojini and Sanjay Nagral

A complaint was filed by over 50 doctors under the Medico Friend Circle against Dr. Praveen Togadia in the Medical Council of India to get his license to practice medicine revoked for his indulgence and involvement in hate propaganda and violence.
(Also accessible at: www.humanscapeindia.net and at www.pucl.org )

We would be grateful if you could give good publicity to this - in medical
as well as non-medical media, and request medical groups interested in the
subject to contact us. If any of them is interested in signing the complaint
to the Medical Concil of India, they can use the text given in this article
and send a copy to the Medico Friend Circle.

Please contact us at: (a) Manisha Gupte - Managing Trustee, Medico Friend Circle
(b) N. Sarojini, Convenor, Medico Friend Circle (c) Amar Jesani and
(d) Sanjay Nagral

Given the history of Medical Council in India, it is unlikely that any
serious investigation in the doctors participation in violence and hate
campaign will be carried out unless strong public pressure is applied. Given
below is also a copy of petition for collecting signatures and sending them
to the Medical Council. This petition is for demanding serious and impartial
investigation into the charges leveled in the complaint against Dr. Togadia.

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MEDICINE VIOLATED: Making Praveen Togadia Accountable to Medical Ethics

The anti-Muslim Gujarat violence of 2002 also violated the integrity of the
medical profession and health services. A national level investigation team
of doctors and health activists appointed by the Medico Friend Circle
discovered to its dismay that the virus of communalism had not only
ideologically penetrated the medical profession, but had also practically
ensured that no good medical and forensic evidence of violence was collected to get justice for victims. Many of you might not know that several of the key players of the Gujarat violence are medical doctors, and one of them is the best known face of theirs, Dr. Praveen Togadia. Many doctors feel that he has tarnished the image and ethics of medical profession by being a part of the hate campaign and violent attacks on minorities. To make him accountable, and more importantly, to ensure that he is thrown out of the medical profession so that he stops maligning good name of medicine, the Medico Friend Circle and 50 doctors from different parts of the country, on June 26, 2003, filed a complaint before the Medical Council of India (MCI), New Delhi, against Dr. Togadia. Given below is the copy of the complaint.

The annexures to the complaints are not reproduced here but their references are given in the text. Typically, even two months after receiving it the MCI has not started even preliminary proceedings to investigate the complaint.

We request all who agree with its content to write to the MCI demanding
immediate investigation and action in this complaints and also investigation
of all doctors involved in hate campaigns.