On Wednesday, June 14, a bizarre situation unfolded at the Indira Gandhi Government Medical College & Hospital (IGGMCH) in Nagpur when the security guards caught a man roaming around the hospital in a burqa, pretending to be a woman doctor. The accused was identified as 25-year-old Javed Shaikh, a resident of Tajbagh.
The hospital authorities reported the man to the police after his true identity was revealed. Cops from the Tehsil police station reached the spot and arrested the accused. During interrogation, Javed Shaikh said that he was transgender and went to the hospital in a burqa, pretending as a woman doctor, to befriend men.
Dr Sagar Pande, deputy medical superintendent at IGGMCH, said, “Our security personnel had never seen this person before and frankly no doctor goes around hiding their face. We have Muslim female doctors who wear a hijab that covers the head only. But since the burqa was hiding the entire face, security personnel became suspicious.”
“It turned out to be a man. We immediately called the cops because this was definitely a unique situation, a man cross-dressing as a female doctor and roaming in our hospital,” Pande added.
The police revealed that Javed was visiting the hospital posing as a woman doctor for the last 20 days. He wore a burqa and a female doctor’s apron over it and introduced himself as ‘Dr Ayesha Siddiqui’ to the staff and patients.
The police further said that Javed used to primarily focus on male patients. He used to speak to other doctors also frequently, but since he wore a burqa and modulated his voice, no one could identify him.
For the last three-four days, a female security guard named Santoshi, however, found his behaviour to be a little strange. On Wednesday morning, when Javed reached the hospital in the burqa, Santoshi confronted him. She asked him some questions and when her suspicion grew, she urged him to remove the burqa. Javed resisted saying that he was shy to remove the burqa in front of male colleagues.
Santoshi then took Javed to a separate room where she insisted that he removes the burqa. Santoshi was shocked to see a male inside the burqa. She immediately alerted the hospital authorities who in turn phoned the police.
Javed Shaikh was taken into custody and booked under IPC section 171 (impersonation with fraudulent intent), 380 (theft), and 451 (trespass).
Media reports quoted sources in the hospital as saying that Javed had feminine features, and spoke openly about his interest in men. “The man said he was trying to hook up with other men,” a source who was there when Shaikh was stopped at the hospital recalled. In order to try his luck, he would speak with unrelated patients’ family members and get their phone numbers, he added.
Though the police are looking into the homosexual angle, nothing specific to that has been discovered thus far. The Tehsil Police Station’s API S Pandhre stated, “We are investigating that (homosexual) angle as well. But prima facie it seems that Shaikh was there to steal mobile phones.”
