Doctors of Cooper hospital who carried out Sushant’s post-mortem face shocking abuse; their phones ring constantly

Five doctors of Cooper hospital who had signed off on actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s post-mortem examination report have been doxxed and are being relentlessly harassed.

The targeted malicious campaign— which put out the doctors’ names with their phone numbers with a copy of the autopsy report— took off online three days ago with the allegation that they had taken a bribe to declare that the actor had died by suicide. Within hours, not only was this claim widely shared along with a screenshot of the Facebook account of one of the doctors and the LinkedIn profile of another, but many people also began making abusive calls to them. Some even tracked down the doctors’ alternative contact numbers by pretending to be patients in distress, as well as flooded the hospital’s landline with calls. Many of these call recordings have been posted online, prompting other harassers to do the same.

From demanding that the doctors’ licences be cancelled and be booked for murder to calling for the hospital’s closure, the harassers haven’t spared anyone. They have even published the contact numbers and work profiles of doctors with similar names.

Dr Pinakin Gujjar, dean of Cooper hospital, confirmed that the five doctors are being abused online as well as on calls, but refused to divulge more details, saying he, too, has been subjected to similar harassment.

A colleague of the five doctors said the trolls stepped up the attack after an unverified claim began doing the rounds that the doctors had gone into hiding.

Hospital authorities said the doctors are petrified and reluctant to file a police complaint, fearing that they could be subjected to further harassment. The medical fraternity has offered to provide them with legal guidance should they be willing to file a complaint with the police or any other authority. At a meeting with an office-bearer of the Medico-Legal Association of Maharashtra on Monday, one of the targeted doctors also expressed concern for the safety of his family member, who is also featured on the Facebook profile photograph being circulated. “He refused to file a complaint even on Tuesday. We understand their reservation; these are young doctors,” said a senior forensic science expert.

Condemning the attacks, Dr Shailesh Mohite, president of the Medico-legal Association of Maharashtra, said those who are objecting to the manner in which the post-mortem examination was conducted should seek legal recourse, instead of running a witch-hunt.

Another doctor from Cooper hospital said questioning the credentials of the forensic experts and mounting a hate campaign against them is a tactic to intimidate the medical fraternity. “We hope the Mumbai police will take note of this.”

In its post-mortem examination report, conducted hours after Rajput’s body was found in his Bandra apartment on June 14, Cooper hospital had said the actor had died of “asphyxia due to hanging”. Rajput’s family has questioned why the time of death, which is usually mentioned in an autopsy report, is missing from it. Last month, the Forensic Science Laboratory in Kalina ruled out homicide, and said that there was no trace of any harmful or toxic chemicals and/or drugs in Rajput’s viscera samples.