The principal of Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College has resigned as junior doctors, interns, and postgraduate trainees continued their strike for the fourth consecutive day on Monday, demanding a magisterial inquiry into the rape and murder of a 31-year-old woman trainee doctor.
The medical community had been calling for the resignation of Dr. Sandip Ghosh, the principal. In a statement to reporters, Ghosh explained that he was resigning due to the defamation he faced on social media following the tragic incident, stating that the victim was “like my daughter.” He added, “As a parent, I resign. This should not happen to anyone in the future.”
Patients experienced significant inconvenience as the outpatient departments at RG Kar College and Hospital remained closed due to the ongoing protests by doctors and medical students. For the past three days, junior doctors had been attending to emergency duties, but as of Monday morning, they have ceased even those responsibilities.
The trainee doctor was discovered in a seminar hall at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital with injury marks on her body. An autopsy later confirmed that she had been raped before being murdered. The accused, a civic volunteer, was arrested on August 10 (Saturday) and has been placed in 14-day police custody.
Meanwhile, Kolkata Police’s detective department is expected to question three doctors and one housekeeping staff member working at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in connection with the case. According to police sources, those being questioned include an intern doctor, two first-year postgraduate trainee doctors from the chest medicine department, and a housekeeping staff member. These individuals were on night duty on August 9, the day the semi-nude body of the trainee doctor was found. Some of them had joined the victim for dinner before the incident.
The incident has sparked widespread outrage in West Bengal and other states, with medical students and doctors protesting to demand accountability.
In Delhi, doctors at ten government hospitals, including Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital, have gone on strike in response to the rape and murder of the Kolkata trainee doctor. All elective services have been suspended. Hospitals participating in the strike include Maulana Azad Medical College, RML Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College, VMMC and Safdarjung Hospital, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, GTB, IHBAS, Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Medical College, and the National Institute of TB and Respiratory Diseases Hospital. The strike began at 9 am, according to a statement by the Resident Doctors’ Associations (RDA).
