‘Goons were sent’: RG Kar professor reveals pressure from ex-principal Sandip Ghosh
Telegraph | 2 September 2024
More old skeletons from the time Sandip Ghosh was principal are tumbling out of the cupboards of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
The latest revelation comes in the form of a video from a convention held on August 29 at the state-run teaching hospital, in which a professor revealed he received threats related to the passing and failing of students.
Dr Samir Kumar Ray, professor and head of the Department of Community Medicine at RG Kar Medical College, openly spoke out against former principal Sandip Ghosh and team at the convention.
“I received this order from the principal to give grace marks to a few students, which I refused,” Dr Ray said in the video. The Telegraph Online has not verified the authenticity of the video but it was made available by someone who was there at the convention.
“Later, I was called in a room close to the principal's office where two goons were sent to speak to me who directly questioned me why I did not give marks. I believe students pass and fail on their own. Later I was questioned whether I wish to get transferred, to which I replied I am open to that as well,” Dr Ray said.
Dr Ray revealed that during his tenure, he frequently received threats related to the passing and failing of students. These threats, according to Dr Ray, were attempts to manipulate academic results and create an atmosphere of fear within the institution, something that The Telegraph Online has reported earlier.
Ghosh resigned as principal of RG Kar hours after a postgrad intern doctor was found raped and murdered in the seminar hall of the Chest Medicine Department. The same day, he was reinstated in another state-run teaching hospital but Calcutta high court, while transferring the rape-murder probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), sent Ghosh on forced leave.
The high court later also transferred another probe, on the allegations of financial irregularities at RG Kar under Ghosh, to the CBI.
The central agency has grilled Ghosh for over 15 days for long hours.
At the convention, Dr Ray expressed deep concern over what he called the unethical pressure that was put on him to change students’ grades.
“The principal even showed me a paper with the signature of 10 to 15 students stating that he has received complaints against me that I am unavailable for students and I do not take classes. He then asked me to step back, to which I agreed,” Dr Ray said in the video.
The Telegraph Online tried to contact Dr Ray for more details but he did not respond.
On Monday, junior doctors of RG Kar and other state-run teaching hospitals are marching to Lalbazar, the Kolkata Police headquarters, to demand Calcutta police commissioner Vineet Goyal’s resignation for what the protesting doctors call lapses in the rape-murder probe by the cops.