Times of India
13 July 2010

Upset over one of their own being manhandled by their boss for being drunk on duty, all the 120 security guards of Sion hospital protested by refusing to do any work on Monday.

The guards who gathered outside the main security office said that their colleague Rajaram Mistry, 52, was brutally beaten by Sushil Badekar, chief of security, for reporting for duty in inebriated state. “On July 3 around 4.30 pm, when Badekar found Mistry drunk, he took him to the office and beat him with a bamboo stick,” said a guard. Mistry was later handed over to the cops and booked for being drunk on duty and misbehaving. He was released a day later.

“I have been undergoing treatment for injuries all these days. If that wasn't bad enough, today I heard I am to be suspended,” said Mistry.

As news of the incident spread, around 3 pm all the guards decided to stop working in protest. “Even if Mistry was drunk, there was no reason for him to be beaten or handed over to the cops. We will not resume work till Badekar apologises,” said a guard.

Most senior doctors, however, feet that Badekar was justified. “The guard was drunk and deserved to be punished. This is nothing but chori uppar se seena jori,” said a head of department. A BMC security official, who was at the hospital to negotiate between the guards and the authorities, said that the guards are making an issue of nothing. “Mistry was drunk and misbehaving. He was abusing passers-by and abandoning his post. Now that the guards have refused to work, we have ordered an inquiry against Badekar as well as Mistry,” he said.