4 brothers, 3 of them state & defence docs, get SIR call
Times of India | 6 January 2026
Kolkata: Four brothers, including two state health department doctors and one who served the Indian Army as a doctor, have received SIR hearing notices. While all said they will appear for the hearing on Tuesday, they alleged that this was harassment, forcing them to miss work for a day.
When Sajal Biswas received the call on Monday, asking him to report for the hearing on Tuesday, the deputy CMOH in Bankura was busy with work. Biswas said this was unexpected after casting vote for close to three and a half decades, whether for the local civic body, Assembly, or the parliamentary election.
"This kind of autocratic and fascist attitude is going to cost me a day's work, as I have to come all the way from Bankura, where I am posted, to the hearing centre in Agarpara near my home. As a service doctor, it was proper for me to get leave approval from Swasthya Bhawan for the hearing, but I am not being given that window. But I will be attending the hearing as I would not like to lose my citizenship," Biswas told TOI.
Like Biswas, his brother Tapan Biswas also graduated from Medical College, Kolkata. The latter then joined the Indian Army after his post-graduation diploma from IPGMER (SSKM). He retired in 2021 as a lieutenant colonel and is now working as a critical care specialist in a multispecialty hospital in Kolkata.
"I am hurt and a bit shocked as well that I will have to prove my nationality even after serving the Army. I always made it a point to exercise my franchise, except for the period when I was posted in Jammu and Kashmir for seven years. The last time I voted was during the last parliamentary elections."
All four brothers have the same residential address in Agarpara, and they will attend the hearing at Sabitri Mahajati Balika Vidyapith.
"This SIR exercise is a farce like the notebandi. Has that initiative, taken at the cost of harassment every citizen faced, been able to stop black money circulation?" asked Swapan Biswas, medical officer at Bhatpara State General Hospital, who has been working for the state government since 2004.
Another brother, Rajat Biswas, an employee of a nationalised bank, was also summoned for the hearing on Tuesday.