Doctor’s murder jolts fraternity

The wife of an Indian doctor who was brutally murdered by a patient inside his consultation room is yet to learn the truth behind her husband’s death, as his colleagues struggle to come to terms with the “devilish” stabbing.

Urology specialist Dr Rajan Daniel was allegedly killed by a Pakistani patient who slit his throat with a knife he carried into the former’s Ahalia Hospital consultation room when he arrived for an appointment last Thursday, as other patients waited outside. The suspect had been under the 62-year-old’s treatment, for a urinary disease, for three months.

While the Abu Dhabi police, who later arrested the suspect, investigate the crime, the doctor’s wife Geetha George had not been informed her husband’s death was a murder, one of Dr Daniel’s colleagues said.

“She is in a deep shock, though she has not been told that it was a murder. Their only daughter Junu is doing MD in pathology in Mangalore and her husband is an ENT assistant professor in a private medical college in Calicut,” fellow senior urologist Dr P.K. Gopinath Menon said. He said the couple would arrive in the UAE today.

Dr Menon said Dr Daniel, who he had known since 1989 when they worked together in Kerala, India, was a noble, humane and softly-spoken man.

“This is an irrevocable shock to the doctors here and in India. Such an inhumane and barbaric thing has never happened in the history of the Gulf countries. This calls for us doctors to be careful while dealing with patients.”

Dr Daniel had worked in Abu Dhabi for more than a decade, with a stint in Yemen prior to that, he said. “(The accused) hasn’t had any complication or problem in the treatment. We don’t know why he did it. We are just gradually returning to our normal work,” he said.

“Calling it a devilish act (would) be an understatement. The entire medical fraternity is shocked,” said another staff member.

The hospital’s medical administration manager C. Induchoodan denied a report that the accused had taken revenge after a relative died following Dr Daniel’s treatment. “There was no such incident. We have not recorded any such death,” he said.

The hospital had activated its disaster management plan following the crime, though normal operations had been restored in two floors of the hospital that were blocked for investigation.

However, Dr Daniel’s consultation room, where the murder took place, remains closed after being cleaned.

Dr Daniel and his wife shared an apartment in the same building as the murder took place, as the doctors live on the upper floors of the hospital building. Hospital management had assigned a staff nurse to be with Geetha since the incident took place, source said, while friends and relatives had also been visiting.

The hospital management held a condolence meeting in Dr Daniel’s memory on Friday. It is expected the doctor’s body will be released by authorities by Monday, following which it will be repatriated to India.

sajila@khaleejtimes.com