Police in India’s northern Rajasthan state are investigating messages between three staffers at a private hospital in which they allegedly talked about refusing to attend Muslim coronavirus patients.
The Hindustan Times reported the messages, which became a viral sensation on social media, captured a conversation between two female employees of Srichand Baradiya Rog Nidan Kendra hospital in the town of Sardarshahar.
The messages, exchanged using WhatsApp, included statements such as “we should stop attending to Muslim patients” and “I take an oath that from tomorrow, we will not do X-rays of Muslim patients.”
A third person who joined the conversation, evidently a woman based on how she referred to herself, said: “Had Hindus been [coronavirus] positive and the doctor was Muslim, he would never have attended to Hindus. I will not attend to Muslims in the Outpatient Department. Tell them Madam is not in.”
Another message in the conversation asserted that only Muslims had tested positive for the coronavirus in Sardarshahar, so patients with the virus should be referred to Muslim doctors.
Police complaints were lodged against three people, including one of the hospital’s doctors, after the WhatsApp posts surfaced publicly. The charges include religious discrimination and causing “public mischief.”
“I apologize for the chats which are getting viral on social media. Me and my staff members don’t want to hurt the sentiments of any religion. In future [sic] my staff would not give you any chance of complaint,” hospital chief Dr. Sunil Choudhary said in his own social media post after the charges were filed on Sunday.
The Indian Express reported on Monday that “one of the participants in the purported chat was allegedly Dr. Choudhary’s wife, who is a doctor herself.”
Mrs. Choudhary denied she wrote any of the offending messages and insisted her hospital does not discriminate against Muslims. Sunil Choudhary echoed these sentiments, insisting that a review of the hospital’s logs during the height of the coronavirus pandemic would show that a large number of Muslim patients were treated without hesitation.
“Even during that time of widespread fear, I was providing 24-hour healthcare facilities to everyone. We have never discriminated against anyone on the basis of their religion or caste. I have also spoken with the community members who made the complaint. The issue shouldn’t be politicised and doctors should not be punished without any reason,” he wrote on Facebook.
“Despite that, people felt bad, and for this, I and my entire hospital staff apologize. We assure you that in the future our hospital will not give you any reason to complain,” he added.
According to the Indian Express, local police are trying to determine the authenticity of the chat messages, which appear to have been shared mostly through screen captures, and establish the identities of the authors.
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