West Bengal: 3rd Year MBBS student of NBMCH goes missing, medicos stage protest

Sushrutanagar: The medical students of North Bengal Medical College & Hospital (NBMCH) staged a protest demanding the college authorities be more proactive in tracing a third-year MBBS student who went missing as there is no news of him so far. 

The third-year student was the 23-year-old Raunak Paul, who came from Tufanganj in the Cooch Behar district. A fourth-year student of the college said, "As we could not locate Raunak in the hostel on 23rd August 2022 we started searching for him. One of his relatives stays in Deshbandhupara of Siliguri. He would often visit them. But he has neither gone home nor to these relatives. We are deeply concerned as neither Raunak nor Khwaj could be found so far."

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Shariar Alam, a representative of the Medical Service Centre of the NBMCH and the North Bengal Dental College Hospital, told Telegraph India, "Within a span of 15 days, two students of the same college went missing from the hostel. So far, none could be traced. We want the authorities and the police to be more active in finding them. The incidents have left several students worried."

This is the second missing incident happening within a month at the college. The first missing incident was reported on August 10 when a first-year MBBS student went missing and is suspected to have attempted suicide by jumping into the Teesta from Coronation Bridge in Sevoke, around 25km from the college. The first-year medico has been identified as 20-year-old Khwaj Ahmed from Uttar Pradesh. Both reportedly stayed in the residential hostel on the campus. 

Alam added that the authorities need to look deeper into the incident. He said, "They should also try to find out why students are going missing amid their medical studies. In both cases, we have come to know that these boys were suffering from depression. The authorities should evolve mechanisms to confirm that students are in good physical and mental health." Meanwhile, the NBMCH vice-principal and superintendent Sanjay Mallick stated that they immediately informed the police. 

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