WB hospital vandalism state’s failure: HC

Aksheev Thakur

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 16

A day after a mob vandalised RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, the Calcutta High Court on Friday slammed the West Bengal Government, calling the incident “an absolute failure of the state machinery”.

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Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam, heading a Division Bench, expressed disbelief that the police intelligence lacked information about the assembly of 7,000 people at the hospital in the early hours of Thursday, as reported by the state’s lawyer. The court demanded photographic proof of the safe condition of the hospital’s seminar room where the body of a woman doctor, who was allegedly raped and murdered, was found. The court also said it could order closing down of the medical establishment.

“This is an absolute failure of state machinery. So they (the police) couldn’t protect their own men. A sorry state of affairs. How will doctors there work fearlessly?” the court observed.

It directed the police and the administrator of the hospital to file separate affidavits narrating the “true state of affairs” at the institute and all connected matters on August 21 when the matter will be heard again.

A group of people, posing as protesters, entered the hospital and vandalised the emergency department, nursing station, and medicine store, while also damaging CCTV cameras. Meanwhile, the CBI questioned Sandip Ghosh, former principal of the medical college, for more than one-and-a-half hours in connection with the case.

Ghosh had been evading CBI summons. He was previously summoned by the agency on August 15, but he approached the high court, claiming threat to his life. The court told Ghosh’s counsel that if he made an application, he would be provided security.

The CBI has also summoned former superintendent of the hospital Sanjiv Vashishth and head of chest department Arunabha Dutta Chowdhury. It also questioned doctors of the hospital.Earlier on August 15, a team of the probe agency questioned batch mates of the victim who were on duty at the hospital on the night of the incident. The CBI also visited the victim’s family. The Kolkata police have arrested 25 persons in connection with the vandalism at the hospital on the night of August 15. Police commissioner Vineet Goel said he did not expect such large crowd to turn up at the hospital.

“We are not shielding anyone. There was no attempt to call the crime a suicide. We have handed over all photographs and video evidence to the CBI,” he added.

Meanwhile, the protest by doctors intensified with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) announcing a 24-hour nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency services from Saturday to protest the incident.

“The situation was handled shabbily by the college authorities and the police investigation was stalled on the first day,” the IMA alleged. Facing backlash from doctors, the Federation of Resident Doctors Association too resumed the protest.