Indore doctors 'purify' campus after Halloween party — with gangajal

The medical community in Indore on Tuesday, 15 October, "purified" the premises of the government-run Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, sprinkling Ganga water after a 'Halloween party' was allegedly organised in a 150-year-old building on the campus.

Amid uproar, the college management claimed it didn't grant permission to hold the 'Halloween' event in the historical building.

Office-bearers of the Medical Teachers' Association (MTA) and other doctors sprinkled Gangajal in the King Edward Medical School building, constructed in 1878 during the British Raj.

"We learned that a Halloween party was recently held in this building. We have purified the building area by sprinkling Gangajal," MTA president Rahul Rokde told PTI.

He demanded that the medical college management lodge an FIR against those responsible for defacing the historical building in the name of a 'Halloween party'.

"We had allowed representatives of a local organisation, called Jain Social Group, to inspect the premises of King Edward Medical School. We didn't permit a Halloween party," said college dean Dr Sanjay Dixit.

Dixit claimed no Halloween party was organised in the historical building, adding that the investigation would be conducted to know the facts.

However, the dilapidated King Edward Medical School building tells a different story.

Eyewitnesses said the walls of the building were marked with "O Stree, Kal Aana" (lines inspired by a horror comedy movie) and several scary sentences written in English. Obscene pictures and objectionable lines have also been engraved, they claimed.

"From the pictures that have surfaced on social media, we came to know that this building was painted as a haunted building for the Halloween party. We cannot tolerate such an act because this building is a heritage of the medical field and alma mater of many reputed doctors," said Government Super Speciality Hospital Superintendent Dr Sumit Shukla, an alumnus of the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College.

"We want the building's renovation to preserve the rich history of Indore's medical fraternity," he added.

Halloween is celebrated in many countries on October 31, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. In popular culture, the day has become a celebration of horror.