The West Bengal government on Monday shunted out Kolkata’s police commissioner and one of his deputies over the police’s handling of the RG Kar Hospital rape and murder, agreeing to most of the demands of junior doctors who have been on protest since August 10.
Monday’s announcement came a day ahead of a likely hearing at the Supreme Court, and at the end of what was the fifth attempt at breaking an impasse.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said Kolkata commissioner Vineet Goyal, north Kolkata deputy commissioner Abhishek Gupta, director of medical education Kaustav Nayek and director of health services Debasish Haldar will be removed after 4pm. The doctors said they will continue their strike till the decisions are notified.
“Since the matter is sub-judice, we will issue the necessary orders after the hearing, by 4pm tomorrow,” Banerjee said, describing the meeting as fruitful and reiterating her request for the doctors to resume work.
Protesters gathered at the sit-in outside Swasthya Bhavan, the state health department headquarters, broke into celebrations simultaneously.
A group of nearly 45 doctors reached the CM’s residence a little before 7pm on Monday and began discussions that lasted roughly two hours. Thereafter, the two sides took another roughly three hours to pore over the minutes of the meeting. “The minutes have been signed by my chief secretary and 42 names from the side of the junior doctors,” Banerjee said.
One of the protesters said, “Some of our demands have been met. Some like removal of state health secretary have not been met. It took the government 37 days. As for security in hospitals, the state government said a task force would be set up. We said that we want safety and security not just from bad elements but also from threats, mafia raj and syndicate raj which exist inside. The road to discission has been kept open. It was a mixed bag result.”
Prior to the parleys, both sides had at last reached agreement on the rules of engagement: that no videography or live-streaming, as sought by the doctors, would be done, but both sides will sign off on the minutes of the talks.
For both sides, there were multiple factors influencing the need to find a solution, with the most important being a Supreme Court hearing likely to take place on Tuesday. On September 10, the country’s top court gave doctors time till 5pm the following day to rejoin work with no repercussions, failing which the government was free to take action.
But also at play were recent developments in the case itself. The medics cited the arrest of RG Kar Hospital’s then principal Sandip Ghosh and the head of the local police station Abhijit Mondal by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The two have been accused by the federal of agencies “conspiring to downplay the incident”, including by delaying the filing of FIR.
Banerjee on Monday said that one of the demands, regarding a thorough probe, was no longer in the Bengal government’s hands since the case had been transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation. “Of the remaining four demands, we have agreed to three,” the CM said, adding that the government will also increase security at its hospitals.
Banerjee said that the government did not agree to demands to remove a third senior administration official – the principal secretary of the health department. “We told them that we cannot empty out the entire health administration leadership at once”.
In recent days, the demonstrations have spread across Kolkata, with thousands joining in marches on Sunday despite heavy rain.
Including Ghosh and Mondol, three people have so far been arrested over the saga, which has triggered agitations across Bengal. The third person arrested is Sanjoy Roy, a civic volunteer who is the sole accused of murdering and raping the 31-year-old doctor, whose body was found on August 9.
The Calcutta high court directed CBI on August 13 to take over the case from the city police. Roy was transferred to the custody of the CBI and subsequently he was made to take a polygraph test alongside Sandip Ghosh and five other RG Kar Hospital officials and doctors.
