KOLKATA: Colleagues of the PGT doctor whose body was found in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital (RGKMCH) seminar hall said the chain of command that initially told the doctor’s parents that she had died by ‘suicide’ started at the very top – at the office of former principal Sandip Ghosh.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday had questioned how and why the hospital had initially told the victim’s parents that she had died by suicide when it was apparent that it was rape and murder.
On Aug 9, the parents of the 31-year-old received a call from the hospital’s assistant superintendent at 10.53 am, asking them to come as their daughter had fallen ill. Minutes later when the parents were getting ready to visit the hospital, they received another call informing them that their daughter had died by suicide.
Hospital sources said the decision to inform the parents that their daughter had died by suicide was taken in the office of ex-principal Ghosh. The parents, as well as colleagues of the deceased doctor, have right from day one been questioning the motive behind the initial suicide theory when it was clearly a rape and murder case.
“Strong tell-tale signs of sexual abuse and murder were all over her body. Hospital officials who had gathered after hearing the incident are all doctors who saw the body. Why were the parents misled?” asked a PGT colleague.
Another colleague said the assistant super had not acted on his own when he told the parents that it was suicide. “He must have been instructed by the college command led by ex-principal Sandip Ghosh. We are convinced that there was a plan to pass this off as a suicide,” said another colleague.
Colleagues said the 31-year-old’s body was first noticed around 9am by an intern who was also on duty in respiratory medicine department. He alerted his seniors who then informed hospital administrators. Colleagues also questioned the lapse of almost 2 hours before the parents were informed.
Insiders alleged that shortly after the body was found, Ghosh had convened a meeting inside the very seminar hall where the body lay. They said the presence of at least two outsiders (doctors) during the closed-door meeting along with the then MSVP Sanjay Bashist and the respiratory medicine head Arunabha Dutta Chowdhury. The inspector in-charge of the RGKMCH outpost was informed only around 10.10 am.
“The deceased PGT was like a daughter to me and the unfortunate incident has put me and the entire hospital administration in deep shock,” Ghosh had said after the incident. Even as Ghosh announced his resignation from medical education three days after the incident, he was rehabilitated within hours appointing him as principal of Calcutta National Medical College (CNMC). Before he could take charge, Calcutta high court directed him to go on long leave.
“We are for neutral probe and we also want the truth to emerge,” Bashist had said before he was transferred to CNMC.
Dutta Chowdhury had taken over as head of the department eight days before the incident. He had said he was not aware about the assistant superintendent Dwaipayan Biswas’s call to the parents and said it was wrong to tell them that she had died by ‘suicide’.
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