COIMBATORE: Around 200 medical students and government doctors demonstrated before the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) on Friday afternoon, demanding a CBI inquiry and an expert committee to look into the death of an
AIIMS postgraduate student, Dr G Saravanan.
Saif Ali Khan Health Update
Dr Saravanan Ganeshan, a former Madurai Medical College student, was found dead in Hauz Khas apartment on July 11. Doctors suspected that he overdosed himself with potassium chloride which causes cardiac arrest, but does not usually show up in a postmortem.
The protesters said the evidence in the case pointed more towards a murder rather than a suicide.
The demonstration, led by the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association (TNGDA), had students holding placards stating that they wanted an inquiry into the student’s death.
“The student who had joined the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) six months ago for MD in pathology had moved to MD in general medicine only 10 days before his death,” said TNGDA president, Dr G R Ravindranath. “Police have also not found any apparent reason for distress or unhappiness. If he did not like the place or circumstances, he would have just changed institutes and not courses,” he said.
The other factor that has raised suspicion among doctors in Tamil Nadu is the fact that a venflon on his right arm. Police suspect that he had overdosed himself with potassium chloride.
“The venflon, used to give a medicine through drips, found on his right arm shows that the medicine was injected through the right arm. Now we also know that Saravanan was a right-handed person,” said Dr Ravindranath. “It is very difficult for a right-handed man to inject a needle into his vein perfectly with his left hand. So it could have been done by someone else,” he said.
Possible motives behind his murder could be plenty, say government doctors. “ It could be for his postgraduate seat, which will get empty before the second round of counselling scheduled next week, once he is dead. It could be a case of ragging or mental harassment, especially because Saravanan was a ‘other backward class’” student,” said Dr Ravindranath.
“We hear that OBC students are treated like SC/ST students at AIIMS. Also, many Tamil Nadu students have lost their lives at central government institutes in north India, like IITs and post-graduate institute in Chandigarh,” he said.
“We want a CBI inquiry into Saravanan’s death to uncover the real reason,” he added.