Three senior doctors of a civic-run hospital, arrested for allegedly abetting the suicide of a junior colleague by harassing and making casteist remarks against her, June 3 approached a sessions court for bail.

The three doctors -- Hema Ahuja, Bhakti Mehere and Ankita Khandelwal -- all attached to the B Y L Nair Hospital in South Mumbai, were arrested last week on charges of abetment to suicide of their junior colleague, Dr Payal Tadvi. After Tadvi ended her life on May 22, her family alleged that the doctors taunted and hurled casteist abuses at her as she belonged to a scheduled tribe.

While Mehere was arrested last on May 28 evening, Ahuja and Khandelwal were taken into custody in the early hours of May 29. The accused were subsequently booked under provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Anti-Ragging Act, Information Technology Act and section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

On May 31, the three accused were remanded to judicial custody till June 10 by a special court, following which they filed bail pleas on June 3. In their bail applications, the three have claimed that they never made any remarks on Tadvi's caste and were in fact not even aware about her caste.They further claimed that they had only pulled up Tadvi for doing a "poor job" in the hospital and had not harassed her as alleged by her family. The court is likely to take up the bail pleas for hearing this week.

Tadvi (26), a post-graduate student at Nair Hospital, hanged herself in her hostel room as she was fed up of being allegedly harassed by the three accused. It was also alleged that the accused had hurled casteist slurs at her. The Mumbai Crime Branch is probing the suicide case, which had triggered a wave of protests by different organisations.