india

Updated: Sep 03, 2019 02:01 IST

The police arrested 22 people on Monday, a day after a 73-year-old doctor succumbed to injuries inflicted by tea garden workers angry at the death of a colleague in Assam’s Jorhat.

“We have arrested 22 persons and sent them to judicial custody today [Monday]. They have been arrested on charges of murder, rioting, assault and provision of the Assam Medicare Services Persons Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2011,” said NV Chandrakant, superintendent of police, Jorhat, adding that some more workers are being interrogated.

Chandrakant said more than half the arrested persons work at the Teok Tea Estate where the incident happened. “We have (also) identified the seven to eight people who played a main role in the crime,” he added.

The incident is the latest in attacks against doctors across the country by irate patients or their friends and relatives. After countrywide protests by doctors in June, the government promised to draft a law on violence against doctors. A draft is ready, news agency PTI reported in mid-August, and could be presented before the Union Cabinet shortly.

“The garden doctor, Dr Deben Dutta was assaulted [on Saturday] following the death of one Somra Majhi who was undergoing treatment at the estate’s hospital,” Jorhat district deputy commissioner Roshni Aparanji Korati had said on Sunday. Dr Dutta was taken to Jorhat Medical College and Hospital, where he died while undergoing treatment on Sunday, she had added.