West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced that Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal and other senior officials will be removed, after a meeting with the junior doctors protesting against the rape and murder of their colleague in August.
The 31-year-old trainee doctor was raped and murdered at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9.
The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front has been leading protests for over a month seeking the resignation of Goyal and senior state health department officials. The group has also demanded that the “threat culture” in West Bengal’s medical centres must end.
Banerjee also said on Monday that Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Abhishek Gupta, Director of Medical Education Debashish Halder and Director of Health Services Koustav Nayek will be removed from their posts.
Addressing the media after the meeting, the chief minister said that she had requested the junior doctors to return to work, The Indian Express reported. “They said they will discuss and decide,” the chief minister added. “We accepted four of the demands of the junior doctors.”
The current police commissioner will hand over charge to his successor at 4 pm on Tuesday, Banerjee said.
On their part, the junior doctors said that the meeting with the state government was “positive”, The Indian Express reported. However, they said that they needed to hold discussions with their colleagues before taking a final call on resuming work.
The minutes of the meeting released by the junior doctors noted that Banerjee assured all necessary assistance from the state government to the Central Bureau of Investigation to expedite the inquiry into the rape and murder case.
The Calcutta High Court transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation on August 13.
During the meeting, the chief minister also proposed a task force, headed by the chief secretary and comprising representatives from the junior doctors, to look into the safety and security in hospital and college premises, it added.
“Rs 100 crore has been sanctioned for hospital infrastructure like CCTV, washroom etc, which will be formalised in close consultation with the medical fraternity,” the minutes said. “An effective and responsive grievance redressal mechanism will be put into place in the medical infrastructure across hospitals and colleges.”
Earlier on Monday, the state government invited the junior doctors for the “fifth and final time” for talks with Banerjee. Chief Secretary Manoj Pant said in an email to the protestors that it was their “bounden duty, as law-abiding citizens, to follow and adhere to the apex court’s directive”.
On September 10, the protestors rejected an initial offer from the state government for talks, objecting to an invitation that sought to restrict the number of representatives who could meet Banerjee.
After this, Pant again invited the junior doctors for talks with Banerjee on September 11.
The chief secretary’s second email included an invitation to a delegation of 12 to 15 doctors. In response, the protesting doctors demanded that a 30-member delegation be allowed to participate.
On September 12, Pant sent them a third invitation but the meeting did not take place due to an impasse on the issue of live streaming.
The doctors demanded that the meeting be recorded on video and a copy of the footage be given to them. The state government rejected the demand. A meeting could also not be held on Saturday for the same reason.
Banerjee said that footage of the meeting could be shared only if permitted by the Supreme Court.
However, on Monday, in an email sent to Pant, the doctors agreed to settle for the “minutes with full transcript of the meeting… [being] recorded and formulated by both the parties… and duly signed by all attendees and handed over at the end of the meeting”, The Indian Express reported.
‘Evidence being tampered with’, claim senior doctors
Ahead of the meeting on Monday, senior doctors at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital claimed that evidence was being “tampered” with in the rape and murder case, PTI reported.
“We condemn all such heinous crimes,” the doctors said at a press conference. “This crime is a fallout of the nexus between the West Bengal government and health department officials.”
The doctors demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Supreme Court expedite the probe and punish the culprits without delay.
Also read:
Have the Kolkata rape-murder protests dented Mamata’s women support base?
Why protesting doctors in Kolkata distance themselves from student body with RSS links
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