The National Commission for Women on Thursday took suo motu cognisance of media reports about Indian Air Force doctors conducting the banned two-finger test on a woman officer who had accused a colleague of rape, ANI reported.
According to a press release, the National Commission for Women condemned the Air Force doctors and said it was “utterly disappointed” at their actions as conducting the two-finger test violated a Supreme Court decision on the matter, as well as the right to privacy and dignity of the woman.
Earlier, the Tamil Nadu Police had arrested 29-year-old Flight Lieutenant Amitesh Harmukh for allegedly raping a woman officer in an Air Force college in Coimbatore city. According to ANI, the alleged assault took place on September 9.
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The woman, in her complaint, said that doctors at the Air Force Hospital conducted the two-finger test on her. She said that the test made her “relive the trauma” of the assault.
In 2013, the Supreme Court had banned the two-finger test. Critics have pointed out that the test is unscientific and prejudicial towards a sexual assault complainant, since it is used to test the laxity of vaginal muscles and could be used to judge the complainant’s sexual history.
In its note on Thursday, the National Commission for Women said that the Indian Council of Medical Research had also deemed the test unscientific in 2014.
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The woman also alleged that the senior officers of the Air Force did not take any action after she informed them about the assault. On the contrary, the senior officers attempted many times to talk her out of registering a complaint, said the woman.
The physical examiners at the Air Force Hospital also allegedly delayed the handing over of physical evidence to the authorities. The woman’s swabs were not sent to authorities until after she filed her complaint on September 20, over 10 days after the alleged assault.
