Doctors at CNMC refuse to accept Dr Sandeep Ghosh as principal unanimously shouting slogans of Go back

Kolkata: Around 500 students, interns and junior doctors staged a massive protest in response to the West Bengal Government's appointment of Dr Sandeep Ghosh, the former principal of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, as the new principal of Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital (CNMCH) amid the nationwide protest over the alleged rape and murder of a second-year postgraduate respiratory medicine medico. 

Agitated by the government's decision, the medical students and doctors of CNMCH refused to accept him as the new principal of the institute and protested by locking the doors of the principal's room. 

After locking the principal’s room from outside on Monday evening, the medical students and junior doctors staged a dharna in front of the same room on Tuesday morning. They claimed that they would not allow Dr Ghosh to be their new principal. 

Also read- PG Medico rape-murder case: RG Kar Medical College Principal resigns amid protests

The protesters also formed human barricades at different places in the CNMCH premises. The local Trinamool Congress legislator, Swarnakamal Saha, reached the spot and tried to convince the protesters to restrain from the agitation. He was accompanied by the state Disaster Management Minister, Javed Khan. However, the protesting medical students and junior doctors remained adamant in their stand of not allowing Ghosh to occupy the principal’s chair. 

They greeted Swarnakamal Saha, local MLA and chairman of the Rogi Kalyan Samiti, along with minister Javed Ahmed Khan with “go back” slogans when they reached CNMC in the morning to convince the students and doctors to accept Dr Ghosh as their new principal.

“We demand that Ghosh should not be allotted any kind of administrative assignment connected to the state health services. He should not be appointed as the principal of not just CNMCH but any other medical college and hospital in the state,” a protesting junior doctor told IANS. 

Another protester said that they are scared since they heard of the appointment of Ghosh as the principal of CNMCH. “We do not want CNMCH to be another R.G Kar,” he said.

A protesting doctor said that although they are currently observing cease-work at CNMCH, they are not creating obstructions to the functioning of the emergency department of the hospital.

This comes after Sandeep Ghosh was appointed as the principal of the National Medical College & Hospital (NMCH) through a notification issued by the West Bengal Health Department hours after resigning as the principal of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital on Monday,

Medical Dialogues a few days ago reported that amid ongoing protests by resident doctors over the alleged rape and murder of a second-year postgraduate respiratory medicine medico at R G Kar Medical College Hospital, the principal Dr Sandip Ghosh resigned from his post.

Speaking to reporters after stepping down from his position, Dr Ghosh claimed that he was being defamed on social media over the incident and said that the deceased doctor was "like his daughter". "I am getting defamed on social media. It is not good. The deceased doctor was like my daughter. As a parent, I resign. I don't like that this should happen to anyone in future," Dr Ghosh said while speaking to reporters in Kolkata, news agency ANI reported.

Medical Dialogues also reported that a second-year postgraduate respiratory medicine medico was allegedly raped and murdered inside the campus after her body was found in the seminar hall of the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital. A preliminary autopsy report indicated sexual abuse before she was killed. As per the inquest report, there was bleeding from the doctor's eyes and mouth, injury on the face and nails, bleeding from her genitals, and several other injury marks on different parts of her body. After this doctors across the country started a massive protest demanding justice for their colleague's rape and murder.

Also Read: RG Kar PG medico rape-murder Case: Junior doctors give 14 August deadline to police to finish probe