MUMBAI, Aug. 14 -- Two days after the Bombay High court asked the state government to check if senior advocate Pradeep Gharat would consider returning as special public prosecutor (SPP) in the 2019 Dr Payal Tadvi suicide abetment case, the state government on Wednesday told the HC that Gharat has expressed willingness to rejoin the case, which has seen multiple delays over the past five years. Additional public prosecutor Shreekant Gavand informed a division bench of justices Ravindra Ghuge and Rajesh Patil that he had spoken to Gharat, who confirmed that he was ready to resume his role as SPP in the matter. On March 7, 2025, the state government removed Pradeep Gharat from the case. In his place, the state had appointed advocate Mahesh Manohar Mule as special public prosecutor. Dr Payal Tadvi's husband, Dr Salman Tadvi and her mother Abeda Salim Tadvi opposed the new appointment. In November 2024, while serving as SPP, Gharat filed an application before the special court seeking to make Dr Yi Ching Ling Chung Chiang - then head of the obstetrics and gynaecology department - a co-accused in the case. Gharat argued that Dr Chiang had failed to act on repeated complaints of harassment lodged by Payal and her family, despite an obligation to intervene. Dr Payal Tadvi, a 26-year-old postgraduate medical student from the oppressed Bhil tribal community, died by suicide on May 22, 2019, allegedly after facing prolonged caste-based harassment and ragging by three senior colleagues - Dr Hema Ahuja, Dr Bhakti Meher and Dr Ankita Khandelwal - at the Topiwala National Medical College and BYL Nair Hospital. Her death sparked national outrage, leading to the arrest of the three doctors under provisions of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act, and the IPC. They are currently out on bail. Despite the gravity of the allegations, the trial is yet to commence....