Bengal health department acts tough against Sandip Ghosh’s confidants

Kolkata: After suspending the former and controversial Principal of R.G. Kar Medical College Sandip Ghosh on Tuesday, the West Bengal health department seems to have started acting tough on his close confidants, against whom there are complaints from the state’s medical fraternity, especially junior doctors.

The state health department, on Wednesday, transferred Dr Birupaksha Biswas from the chair of senior resident doctor of Burdwan Medical College & Hospital in East Burdwan district to Kakdwip Sub-Division Hospital in South 24 Parganas district. He was associated with Pathology department of Burdwan Medical College.

An insider from the state health department said that a transfer in the same post from a medical college to a sub-division officer is generally perceived as a sort of punishment posting.

Days after the event of ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor at R.G. Kar surfaced, an audio clip went viral in the social media groups of doctors, where Biswas was heard threatening a medical intern of getting his registration blocked unless the junior does not follow his instructions.

IANS could not cross-check the authenticity of the viral audio clip. However, after it went viral, a number of junior doctors complained of “threat cultures” introduced by a section of Ghosh-confident doctors including Biswas at different medical colleges in the state.

Now, a section of the state’s medical fraternity believes that by transferring Biswas, the state health department now wants to give a signal to confidants of Ghosh, against whom there are similar complaints.

On Tuesday evening, that is a day after Ghosh was taken into custody by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials in connection with the investigation of the financial irregularities at R.G Kar, the state government issued a notification suspending him from state medical services because of the ongoing criminal prosecution case.

Ghosh was being probed by CBI in connection with their investigation both on the financial irregularities as well as the rape and murder cases. Both these investigations are court-directed and court-monitored.