Six years have passed since a doctor was charged with medical misdemeanours but the Council has yet to pronounce its verdict.

T Murthy and his wife Anita underwent a harrowing experience at the hands of a Residency Road-based doctor in 1993. They claimed that the doctor certified that they were suffering from venereal disease (VD) when in fact they were not. This, according to them, was done in order to take undue advantage of their helplessness.

Murthy first went to a dermatologist and venereologist on Aug 18, 1993 for skin irritation. The doctor asked him to get a medical test done at a particular diagnostic centre.

The doctor then asked him to get his wife too so that he could see if she too suffered from the same disease. He took her to the doctor. Murthy claims, the doctor molested her on the pretext of examiningher. She, however, did not inform her husband then, presuming that it must be how such examinations are done. The doctor too asked her to get a VD diagnosis done.

The couple again visited the doctors for two successive days in August '93 with lab reports. The report indicated that the couple had contracted VD. On the pretext of further examining her, the doctor again molested her.

This time, the doctor's actions raised suspicions and Anita revealed everything to her husband. The couple also suspected the bonafides of the lab referred to by the doctor where the tests were done.

Finally, they consulted two more doctors for a second opinion, and they were in for a shock - they did not have venereal disease.

The outraged couple complained to the Council in August '93. They also submitted a taped version of the conversation they had with the doctor as evidence. They had surreptitiously recorded the doctor's comments and prescriptions.

It took four years, September 11, 1997, for the Council to summon thecouple and hear their side of the story. At another hearing on February 28, 1998, Anita told the Council that the doctor made her strip, then played and kissed with a part of her anatomy as part of the medical examination. "I pushed the doctor and came out. There was no receptionist in the chamber or any other female attendant," she said.

The Council then posted the case "for discussion and finalisation", after hearing all the three parties. Since then, there has been no word from the Council.

With their patience fast wearing off, the couple filed a complaint with the Cubbon Park police who have filed a charge-sheet. The case will come up for hearing before the VIII Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate on February 16.

As for Murthy and his wife, they cannot understand how the Medical Council be so casual about a serious misdemeanour.