West Bengal govt transfers 3 officials of RG Kar Medical College amid protests

The West Bengal government has transferred the principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, along with two senior officials, amid escalating protests over the alleged rape and murder of a doctor on the college premises.
The transfers occurred late last night as unrest intensified at the institution.
Suhrita Paul, who was appointed principal after Sandip Ghosh resigned on August 13, has been replaced by Manas Kumar Bandopadhyay, who had previously been slated to take over in September 2023.
Manas’s earlier tenure was disrupted due to a standoff that resulted in his office being locked for three days.
The new transfers also include the replacement of Medical Superintendent and Vice-Principal Bulbul Mukhopadhyay by Saptarshi Chatterjee.
Additioanlly, Arunabha Datta Chaudhuri, head of the hospital’s chest medicine department, has been transferred out as well.
On the other hand, the appointment of Sandip Ghosh, who was the principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital when the August 9 incident took place, to another hospital in Kolkata was cancelled as well.
The protests erupted following the alleged rape and murder of a junior doctor on August 9. The incident has sparked widespread outrage, with doctors marching from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office, which is probing the case, to Swasthya Bhavan, the state health department headquarters in Salt Lake.
The situation has been further aggravated by a cease-work agitation by doctors across West Bengal and other states. The ongoing strike has severely impacted outpatient services.
A striking doctor said, “Our agitation will continue as only a part of our demands have been met. We are still waiting for justice for our colleague. We will assess today’s developments in the Supreme Court before deciding our next steps.”
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital incident, raising concerns over the delayed filing of the FIR, the delay in handing over the victim’s body to her family, and the failure to protect women and doctors during the mob attack on the college.
In response to the court’s directives, approximately 150 personnel from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) are being deployed at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, replacing the Bengal police.
Additionally, three police officers were recently suspended for their failure to act when a mob of 7,000 people stormed the hospital and vandalised it in an attempt to disrupt the doctors’ protests.