MUMBAI: A 55-year-old man who pretended to be a patient and attacked a doctor with a hammer in her clinic in 2022 and stole her valuables from the clinic was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment on Saturday.
The accused, Rashid Khan, was convicted by a Thane sessions court under Section 397 (robbery) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, after the doctor and 14 other eyewitnesses told the court about his involvement in the gruesome attack in Bhayander. Public prosecutor Rajendra Patil represented the police.
According to the prosecution, the incident took place on January 23, 2022. Dr Gayatri Jaiswal was at her clinic at Amrutvani Satsang Road in Bhayandar West when a masked Khan walked in. He pretended to be a Dubai resident who wanted to fly back, for which he wanted to undergo the mandatory RT-PCR test. As Dr Jaiswal was attending to other patients, she asked him to get his Aadhar card for registration. Khan left the clinic and returned after a while, this time armed with a hammer. He attacked the doctor and forcibly snatched her mobile phone, gold chain, ring, cash, ATM card, debit card, etc., worth ₹93,000.
PI Aviraj Kurhade, the lead investigating officer from Crime Branch (Unit 1) of Kashimira Mira-Bhayander Vasai Virar Police Commissionerate, said a case was registered at the Bhayandar police station. They then launched a manhunt along with the Central Crime Branch. Kurade said the officials scanned the CCTV and searched for cases where a similar modus operandi was used.
“We searched the records of habitual and professional criminals and saw that one such incident was reported in 2021 in Mira Road,” Kurade said. The accused had attacked a senior citizen with a hammer and had escaped with jewellery and cash worth ₹1.5 lakh in 2021. The Crime Branch (Unit 1) had then arrested Khan from Malad East.
After scanning CCTV footage, technical analysis of the accused’s mobile number and call data record (CDR), they were able to trace the accused. He had fled to Panvel and later to Gorakhpur, Lucknow, and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. From there he went to Patna, Bihar and was eventually arrested in Kolkata within a week, the officer said.
Dr Gayatri Jaiswal had received 32 stitches on her head after the attack and is at present in Aurangabad to pursue an Allopathy course. “Her willpower is so strong that she put behind the trauma of the attack and not just reopened the clinic in two months, determined to help people during Covid-19 pandemic, but also saw to it that the accused is convicted,” said the doctor’s brother, Shashikant Jaiswal, 49, who is a professor at the Unity Academy in Mira Road. “Gayatri is glad that Khan has got what he deserved.”