Kolkata doctor horror: How a shadowy ‘North Bengal lobby’ shapes hospital decisions

KOLKATA: With the agitating junior doctors and students putting up the heat on those allegedly part of the ‘North Bengal lobby’ across medical colleges, an FIR has been lodged against three doctors – Birupaksha Biswas, Avik De and Ranjit Saha – all linked to ‘North Bengal lobby’ and close aides of former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh – at Bowbazar police station.

Police have compiled all complaints into one FIR and have registered a case under section 351 (assault as making a gesture or preparation that causes someone to believe that they are about to be subjected to criminal force) of BNS.

What is the North Bengal lobby?

➤ The ‘North Bengal lobby’ refers to a group of officials and doctors working in govt-run hospitals and medical colleges. The shadowy group has dominated newspaper headlines, social media posts and canteen conversations since Aug 9, when a young RG Kar doctor was raped and murdered at her workplace. Here, we try to make sense of what it is and who constitute it for readers not familiar with the group.

➤ This is not a geographical identity. The name tries to define a group of doctors who are close associates of an orthopaedic surgeon who passed out of the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH). A whole lot of doctors who owe allegiance to the group and its leader may not have been students of the NBMCH. And not everyone who has passed out of this reputable medical college belongs to this lobby.

How does it function?
➤The North Bengal lobby has, according to its critics and senior state health officials, come to control much of the day-to-day functioning of govt hospitals and medical colleges. Its influence on health administration far outweighs its number or official designations of its members. The lobby, for example, has come to decide many of the transfers and "punishment" postings of those who refuse to fall in line as well as transfers to "coveted" institutes or departments for those who need to be rewarded.

➤ Almost all controversial decisions of the recent past have been attributed to the North Bengal lobby by seniors in the state health department. A case in point is the posting of the now-shamed former RG Kar principal, Sandip Ghosh. He was twice transferred out of RG Kar by the state health department in the last couple of years but, each time, got back this prized posting within days or weeks. Senior health department officials have attributed this only to his being an important part of the North Bengal lobby.

➤ Many of these decisions seem devoid of any logic or rationale and bypass the usual hierarchy of the health department. The names of some of the beneficiaries of the North Bengal lobby's largesse have appeared in mainstream media recently; they include Avik De, Birupaksha Biswas, Susanta Roy and Suhrita Paul. The names of some of these doctors have also cropped up repeatedly in connection with the attempted cover-up of the RG Kar crime.

What is the RG Kar link?
➤ RG Kar, more than any other medical college and hospital, has been under the North Bengal lobby’s control, say health department officials. A crosssection of the hospital staff has identified former principal Ghosh as the spearhead.

➤ Many of those whose names have cropped up in connection with the crime’s coverup were also seen in the vicinity of the crime scene, say hospital officials. They include Biswas, De and Ray. None of them had any direct link with RG Kar (one, for example, worked in Burdwan, about 110 km away) but were often seen on the campus.

➤ The RG Kar campus had almost become the North Bengal lobby’s unofficial headquarters for some time, say state health department seniors. “We are not surprised by the scale of corruption at this hospital and the maladministratin that gave rogues like Sanjay Roy, the key accused in the rape-murder case, so much control over the campus and its day-to-day affairs,” a senior health department official said.

Two doctors linked to ‘North Bengal lobby’ suspended

➤ Earlier, the state health department suspended two doctors Avik De and Birupaksha Biswas who are in the eye of a storm in medical colleges across the state. Names of the two appear prominently in posters of the 'health syndicate' that were found recently in medical colleges.

Both are also known to be close associates of RG Kar ex-principal Sandip Ghosh. De is the man in red-T shirt in the crime scene who Kolkata Police touted as a fingerprint expert which IMA Bengal challenged. He used to work as an RMO in Burdwan Medical College who is now a first-year surgery PGT at IPGMER.

➤ Birupaksha Biswas, senior resident doctor of pathology, too, has been embroiled in controversy. Junior doctors said he too was present in R G Kar on Aug 9 whereas he had no locus standi to be present. Audio clips where he is heard threatening other students and junior doctors have gone viral even as Biswas had dismissed those as AI-generated.

He was transferred to Kakdwip Sub-Divisional Hospital last Aug from Burdwan Medical College but his release order was issued only on Tuesday. Protest had also erupted in the Kakdwip hospital over his transfer there.

State forms 4-member committee to probe N Bengal lobby threat culture

➤ The state health department has constituted a four-member committee to inquire into various complaints against Avik De, first-year general surgery PGT of IPGMER. One of the prominent faces of the notorious ‘North Bengal’ lobby that is accused of running a health syndicate with an over-arching influence over the functioning of the state health department, he had been suspended on Sept 5.

➤ Three principals — Pit Baran Chakraborty of NRS Medical College, Utpal Dan of Diamond Harbour Medical College and Ramaprasad Roy of PCS Govt Medical College Arambagh — and Avijit Hazra, pharmacology professor at IPGMER, have been tasked to inquire into the allegations against De and submit its findings within seven days.

“There are several charges against De, including nurturing threat culture on campuses of different medical colleges and manipulation and unauthorized interference during examination and various other irregularities. These are serious charges and that is why an inquiry committee of senior professors is being constituted,” said a senior health department official.

➤ The order, signed by the DME, has all complaints of allegations filed at different medical colleges. The first-year PGT of general surgery at IPGMER has not been on the campus since a day before the rape-murder of the 31-year-old PGT at RG Kar hospital. Even as De along with his accomplices have reportedly been terrorising students, junior doctors and even faculty in different medical colleges, his notoriety came to the public glare after the RG Kar incident where he was present in the crime scene.

➤ The crackdown on De began on Sept 3 when the general surgery head wrote to the IPGMER director about De’s absence from the campus since Aug 8.

On Sept 4, the dean of students’ affairs, IPGMER, wrote to the DME that De had not completed registration formality as a PG trainee and he had not submitted a synopsis for this thesis. He has not registered for the biometric attendance system as well. “We have never faced a similar situation with other PGTs,” the dean wrote to the DME, asking his guidance on the course of action that can be taken against De.

On the same day, the college council at North Bengal Medical College barred De from its campus after getting complaints of promoting threat culture and unauthorised interference in examination affairs.

➤ A close aide of former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh, De was also a member of the West Bengal Medical Council from where he was suspended about a week ago. Even Burdwan Medical College as well as IPGMER have barred his entry to their campuses. “This is another step of tightening the noose around not only Avik De but the rest of the lobby,” said a senior health official.