Goa court allows rape-accused doctor to resume in hospital

PANAJI: A fast-track court in Panaji has relaxed the bail condition imposed on a doctor accused of raping a woman in the ICU of a private hospital in Goa last year and permitted him to continue his MD there.“After completing his degree and allied procedures, the accused shall not visit the hospital without court permission for any other reason till the matter is disposed of,” said the presiding officer of the special court, Panaji, Pooja Kavlekar.The doctor was arrested in May 2025 and released on bail in Oct, with one of the conditions being that he not visit the hospital or try to influence any witnesses.He had approached the court, submitting that he had taken admission to the DNB course in general medicine at the hospital in 2023 but hadn’t attended any sessions since Sept 2025.

The doctor said he received a show-cause notice from National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences in April, stating that if he remained absent for over a year, his admission would be terminated.The court said although it was sensitive to the survivor’s condition and believed thatjustice must prevail, it wouldn’t be possible to “complete the case within one month” as the survivor hadn’t even appeared before the police to record her statement.

“This case, therefore, will take years to culminate,” the court noted, and decided that under such circumstances, the doctor could not be kept out of the hospital.“The accused shall not establish contact with the nurses and doctors named in the chargesheet as witnesses, except for professional purposes. The accused shall not tamper with any documents or evidence that may be available in the hospital linked to the case,” the court held.