Sanjeev Kumar Patjoshi, the IPS officer who moved the state human rights panel alleging he was being hounded for reporting a rape in a hospital to the commission, may just have been following official directives. Commission sources said today that the National Human Rights Commission had directed that all cases of custodial deaths and custodial rape should be referred to state rights panels. Since a rape in a hospital amounted to custodial rape, Patjoshi was right in approaching the commission, they added. ‘‘Besides, a woman patient in a hospital forced to be bathed by a male attendant in a ward is itself a grave violation,’’ the sources said. Kerala DGP Hormese Tharakan had said he was yet to ascertain if Patjoshi, a DIG in the Kerala cadre, was authorised to move the panel in the case. The sources also said the state panel had ordered compensation, but the hospital superintendent moved the HC against the order.
