Schism within medical council over ‘North Bengal lobby’
Times of India | 5 September 2024
Kolkata: The rape-murder crime at RG Kar Medical College has led to a fissure in the West Bengal Medical Council with two members resigning on Wednesday. Sources said there was discontent among several other council members over the unauthorised presence of some members at the crime scene on Aug 9.
“We are yet to accept the resignation of the two doctors.We will consider addressing their concern and solve the issue,” said Sudipta Roy, president WBMC.
Many from the medical community have been questioning the presence of a few WBMC members, including its president Sudipta Roy, Sushanta Roy, Avik De and Birupaksha Biswas, at RG Kar on Aug 9. Photos from the crime scene—the seminar hall—showed a man in a red shirt in the cordoned-off area near the doctor’s body, whom doctors identified as De.
The two doctors who have resigned said members, whose names were dragged into the RG Kar incident, should not be allowed to participate in council matters till their names were cleared. “To preserve the honour and glory of WBMC, I request you to keep on abeyance the participation of such members from the council’s activities...,” wrote Dipanjan Bandyopadhyay, medicine head at NB Medical College to WBMC president Sudipta Roy.
Bandyopadhyay is the chairman of the penal and ethics committee 1. Suman Mukherjee, professor of ophthalmology at College of Medicine & Sagore Dutta Medical College, who also resigned is the chairman of the penal and ethics committee 4. “My resignation is in demand for justice for the PGT as well as against names of council members who are in public discourse... The council should see they do not participate in council’s activities for now,” said Mukherjee.
He had earlier written to the WBMC head to suspend RG Kar ex-princiapl Sandip Ghosh after the incident but the council did that only after Ghosh’s arrest.