Syed Tahir Hussain, Assistant Professor in the Anesthesiology Department at Madurai Medical College has been suspended following sexual harassment complaints against him. 23 women, including Professors, Post Graduate students and nurses have filed complaints against him. It is alleged that he misbehaved with the patients as well in the operation theatre.

The Directorate of Medical Education(DME) in Tamil Nadu has suspended the doctor after the Vishaka committee found the allegations to be true. The Dean and chief of the Vishaka committee have revealed damning details about the sexual harassment through a press conference. They said that 18 students of the B.Sc Operation Theatre course, 2 Post Graduates in Anesthesiology, a nurse and 2 Professors have filed complaints of sexual harassment of varying degrees.

Victims have accused the doctor of inappropriately touching them using inappropriate language. He would insist that girl students remove their masks inside the operation theatre saying, “only then I will be able to see your faces well”. He would mock girls based on their skin tone and reportedly told those with fair skin that their “parents did punya which is why they begot fair-skinned daughter”. 

Dr Dhanalakshmi, the chief of the Vishaka Committee revealed these details during the press conference. She further said that Hussain would use obscene nicknames to call the students and that those who were posted to assist him during surgeries were visibly shaken and afraid of being in the same place with him.

The girl students have accused him of pulling their hair, making inappropriate comments like “you are beautiful, your hair is beautiful, your brows are beautiful”, etc. He continued act with impertinence even after sexual harassment complaints were filed against him, they say. He hugged a young woman who lost her relative on the pretext of consoling her and victims say that he didn’t spare his patients either. Media reports give varying numbers of victims ranging from 23–41. 

Meanwhile, Hussain has claimed that he is being witch-hunted for raising his voice against the government to protect the rights of doctors as the General Secretary of the legal wing of the Government Doctors Association. He says that he has exposed the malpractices in the promotion, transfer and posting of government doctors in the state which is why he is being cornered through fake complaints. He told the media that the victims don’t have any evidence to prove the sexual harassment charges.

However, the Vishaka committee’s head and the Dean have said that most of the harassment happened inside operation theatres, different ones at that, and there is no way to produce evidence for those instances. It is unclear whether he used his knowledge of anesthesiology to violate patients and other victims. Recently in a horrific case of sexual abuse in Australia, Shafiul Milky, a Bangladeshi doctor, was sentenced to 11 years for sexually abusing his patients. He said, “oh that’s nice” while digitally raping a patient on the pretext of examining her.