Principal of RG Kar medical college, key staff shunted as protestors hit streets

The West Bengal government on Wednesday night removed the principal, medical superintendent-vice principal, assistant superintendent and head of the department of chest medicine of RG Kar Hospital and Medical College after protesting doctors met top officials of the state health department and demanded an overhaul of staff at the hospital.

The West Bengal government on Wednesday night removed the principal, medical superintendent-vice principal, assistant superintendent and head of the department of chest medicine of RG Kar Hospital and Medical College after protesting doctors met top officials of the state health department and demanded an overhaul of staff at the hospital.

Protesters march to Swasthya Bhawan on Wednesday. (PTI)

Dr Akhtar Ali, the hospital’s former deputy superintendent, on Monday moved the Calcutta high court seeking a probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into malpractices and irregularities that allegedly surfaced during the tenure of Dr Sandip Ghosh, former principal of the medical college.

Separately, CISF officials arrived at the hospital on Wednesday morning, a day after the Supreme Court ordered the security agency to guard the hospital promises.

Top officials, who met the protesting students on Wednesday, stressed that the government is “serious about restoring normalcy” at the hospital and thus decided to give the agitating doctors their demands.

“The objective of the protest is very clear. We want justice. The motive behind the murder should be ascertained and the guilty should be punished. Today around 10,000 doctors marched to Swathya Bhavan. What took the administration so long to accept our demands? I don’t whether to call this a moral victory but this is definitely a first step as far as the protests are concerned. We haven’t seen the government order though,” Kinjal Nanda, one of the protesting doctors of RG Kar, told media.

A day earlier, the apex court came down heavily on the West Bengal government for its mishandling of the investigation into the brutal rape and murder of the doctor, which triggered a nationwide uproar.

Dr Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of RG Kar, was reinstated as the principal of Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital after he resigned as the principal of RG Kar – a move students objected to.

“As Ghosh has been asked to go on leave (by the Calcutta high court), even that order (to reinstate him) has been cancelled,” Nigam said.

Ghosh was questioned by the CBI on Wednesday in connection with the rape and murder of a trainee doctor inside the hospital on August 9. The federal agency has questioned him for more than 60 hours since Friday.

Ali, who was the deputy superintendent till 2023 in the hospital, has accused Ghosh of illegally using dead bodies for research, illegally selling of biomedical waste generated in the hospital and financial irregularities, among others. “In July 2023 I had lodged a written complaint against Ghosh with the state vigilance commission. No action was taken. Yesterday I lodged a complaint with the Tala police station in Kolkata. I moved the Calcutta high court on Wednesday seeking a probe by the ED. I want all those, who are a part of the rackets in RG Kar, should get exposed along with Ghosh,” Ali told the media in Kolkata.

Ali was transferred to the Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital, nearly 200km away from Kolkata, in 2023.

Meanwhile, the Kolkata police, having already registered two FIRs against Ghosh for his alleged involvement in “financial irregularities” and for revealing the identity of the victim, summoned him on Wednesday by 12 noon for questioning. Ghosh couldn’t attend it as he was being questioned by the CBI, officials said.

The state health department on Monday set up a four-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the allegations of financial irregularities at the hospital since January 2021 during Ghosh’s tenure as the principal.

The Supreme Court’s criticism centred around the significant delay in lodging the first information report (FIR) on August 9 into the rape and murder of the 31-year-old junior doctor, the allegation by the parents that the hospital first told them it was a suicide, and the vandalism that occurred at the hospital five days later, raising questions about the competence of the West Bengal police in safeguarding medical professionals.

Multiple protest rallies were held in Kolkata and Salt Lake by doctors, sportsmen, political parties, students, lawyers and engineers on Wednesday. Sit-in demonstrations were also held.

While senior leaders of the state BJP held a sit-in demonstration at Shyambazar in north Kolkata, the Congress held a rally in central Kolkata while trying to reach the headquarters of the Kolkata police. A section of lawyers held a rally in Kolkata, sports personalities organised a rally in the Maidan area and engineers led a rally in College Street. A few hundred doctors led a rally from CGO complex to Swasthya Bhavan in Salt Lake.

“We didn’t ask for justice today. We wanted the state health department to remove people like Ghosh sitting in hospitals. We are really frustrated. The health department appeared to be helpless. We didn’t get any positive answer. The protest will continue,” a doctor told the media.