BENGALURU, 10 FEB 

As many as 38 students at a medical college in Gadag were suspended on Saturday after a reel they made on the campus went viral on social media. The medical students were seen singing and dancing to the Kannada movie Premaloka’s song ‘Nodamma Hudugi’. 

The Gadag incident comes close on the heels of a pre-wedding photoshoot at a government-run hospital in Chitradurga district. Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said the doctor who was performing a fake surgery for his pre-wedding photoshoot was dismissed from service. In a notice, the Health Minister said government hospitals are intended for public health care and not personal endeavours. "I cannot tolerate such indiscipline from doctors." He directed all hospital staff to remain vigilant to prevent similar incidents in the future.

A video of the pre-wedding shoot inside an operation theatre has gone viral on social media. The video shows the doctor, Abhishek, and his fiancé performing a fake surgery on 7 February. The couple is seen holding medical equipment amid full-fledged lighting in the background.

‘Shoot staged in non-functional operation theatre’

The operation theatre of the pre-wedding photoshoot has been non-functional since September last year, health officials said on Saturday. Also, the shoot was done without the knowledge of the Assistant Medical Officer of the facility in Bharamasagar, they said.

The doctor, Abhishek, was dismissed from service on Friday. “The woman who is seen assisting the doctor in the video is his fiancée, who is also a doctor by profession but does not work in the same government medical facility. She works elsewhere. The doctor, who was dismissed from service for his act, is an MBBS graduate and was recently hired on a contractual basis for a year,'' a senior district health officer said. 

But this doctor without the knowledge of the Assistant Medical Officer, arranged a photo shoot inside the unused OT and got his fiancée and others inside the facility without the knowledge of the medical officer,'' he said.