Kolkata: The murder of two doctors—the first in 2001 at RG Kar Medical College and the second in 2003 at Ranaghat hospital—for allegedly voicing wrongdoings at the hospitals has again become a talking point in the backdrop of the rape and murder of the RG Kar PGT doctor in Aug. The 2023 Chandan Sen murder case was even referred at the Supreme Court during the RG Kar hearing on Monday prompting the court to verbally urge Advocate Phiroze Edulji, who raised it, to submit the details to CBI.
Bidisha Sen seemed to relive her battle. Back in 2003, the body of her husband, Chandan Sen, who used to be a surgeon at Ranaghat Sadar Hospital, was found floating in a pond. Some doctors at the hospital reportedly tried to rush through his post-mortem, but locals put pressure and his body was brought to MCH in Kolkata. Post-mortem reports indicated Sen was killed. Investigations revealed Sen was protesting against a cartel selling fake drugs outside India. When hundreds of people took to the streets, demanding justice for the RG Kar Hospital victim, Bidisha, too, walked with them, night after night. “Yet another doctor had to give up her life. The incidents might be different, but the pattern remained the same,” Bidisha said. “I fought for seven years. My son was just 10 at that time. I spent countless days running from pillar to post to seek justice for him. I almost re-lived my struggle when the RG Kar crime took place. I can feel what her parents are going through,” she said.
The Nadia sessions court sentenced four accused to life imprisonment and one to five-years rigorous imprisonment. The Calcutta HC acquitted all the five in 2010 after their lawyers argued the evidence was not enough to prove the charge. Now living at New Town with her son, Sen has been following the RG Kar case closely. “After the Calcutta HC verdict, we decided not to talk about it any more. But this time, I felt justice had to be meted to this woman at any cost. We participated in marches. We tried to contribute to the movement in our own way,” she said.
Two years before Sen’s death, Barrackpore resident Soumitra Biswas, a fourth-year MBBS student was found dead in Lalit Memorial Hostel at RG Kar in Aug 2001. It was initially dismissed as suicide, but investigations later indicated murder. Biswas’s protest against a sleaze racket, which was involved in making porn films on the campus, was reportedly the motive. Three students, who were SFI leaders, were questioned, but no breakthrough was made. One among them is now a prominent face among protesting senior doctors. “The protest against Biswas’s killing was restricted to the RG Kar campus. Back then, there were no social media, we could not build it into a mass movement. All we could achieve was a CID probe. With time, it, too, slowed down, with no result in the end. The case would have taken a different shape had it happened now, with the mass pressuring for a fair probe,” said internal medicine specialist Subhankar Chatterjee, a batchmate of Biswas.