Hospital Worker Allegedly Rapes 18-Year-Old Patient After Sedating Her With Injection

An 18-year-old girl admitted to the intensive care unit of a hospital in India was allegedly raped by a ward worker.

The victim was admitted to the Care Nursing Home on May 27 as she had a high fever, Times Now reported. The accused had allegedly sedated the patient and sexually assaulted her.

The incident came to light after the victim narrated her ordeal to her sister-in-law who had come to visit her. The family then filed a police complaint, following which the police in the Meerut district in the state of Uttar Pradesh took the accused into custody.

The victim told the police the man injected her with a drug before raping her late at night. He also threatened the girl with poison if she revealed the crime to anyone, local daily Jagran [Google Translation showed].

The police said before the formal complaint, the girl's cousin watched the CCTV footage where the accused was seen "molesting" the patient. However, after a while, the cameras mysteriously got turned off for 40 minutes. The police suspect the accused had turned off the cameras to hide the crime. The family has alleged some officials urged them to compromise with the accused and take back the complaint.

In a similar incident in April, a hospital ward worker was arrested after he allegedly tried to rape a COVID-19 patient. The victim was reportedly on oxygen support at the hospital in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The 50-year-old woman was at the COVID-19 care center set up in a hotel when she was attacked. The woman said the accused, identified as Vivek Lodhi, tried to rape her twice. The woman's brother-in-law accused the hospital staff of helping the ward worker flee.

These incidents occur as the country grapples with COVID-19 cases. The healthcare sector in India is facing a grim situation as more than 150,000 fresh cases of COVID-19 are being reported every day. The number has dipped from nearly 400,000. Several hospitals across the country are struggling to provide proper care and beds for those in need.