Tragic legacy: Murders of doctors in Calcutta spark renewed outrage | Kolkata News

Kolkata: The murder of two doctors – the first in 2001 at RG Kar Medical College and the second in 2003 at Ranaghat Hospital – for allegedly expressing misconduct in the hospitals has come to light again in the backdrop of the RG’s rape and murder Kar PGT doctor became a topic of conversation in August. The 2023 Chandan Sen murder case was even referred to the Supreme Court during the RG Kar hearing on Monday, prompting the court to verbally ask advocate Phiroze Edulji, who had argued the case, to submit the details to the CBI.
Bidisha Sen seemed to be reliving her fight. In 2003, the body of her husband Chandan Sen, a former surgeon at Ranaghat Sadar Hospital, was found floating in a pond. According to reports, some doctors at the hospital tried to expedite his post-mortem, but locals applied pressure and his body was taken to the MCH in Kolkata. Autopsy reports indicate that Sen was killed. Investigations revealed that Sen was protesting against a cartel that was selling counterfeit medicines outside India. As hundreds of people took to the streets demanding justice for the RG Kar Hospital victim, Bidisha also walked with them night after night. “Yet another doctor had to give up her life. The incidents may be different but the pattern remained the same,” said Bidisha. “I fought for seven years. My son was just 10 years old at the time. I have spent countless days running from pillar to post seeking justice for him. I almost relived my struggle when RG Kar’s crime took place. I can feel what her parents are going through,” she said.

The Nadia Sessions Court sentenced four accused to life imprisonment and one to five years rigorous imprisonment. The Calcutta HC acquitted all five in 2010 after their lawyers argued that the evidence was insufficient to prove the charge. Sen now lives in New Town with her son and is closely following the RG Kar case. “After the Calcutta HC verdict, we have decided not to talk about it anymore. But this time I felt that justice had to be done for this woman at all costs. We took part in marches. We tried to contribute to the movement in our own way,” she said.
Two years before Sen’s death, Barrackpore resident Soumitra Biswas, a fourth-year MBBS student, was found dead at Lalit Memorial Hostel in RG Kar in August 2001. The crime was initially dismissed as suicide, but later investigations pointed to murder. The motive is said to have been Biswas’s protest against a smear gang that was involved in the production of porn films on campus. Three students who were SFI leaders were interviewed but no breakthrough was achieved. One of them is now a prominent face among the protesting senior doctors. “The protest against the killing of Biswas was limited to the RG Kar campus. There was no social media then, we could not build a mass movement out of it. All we could get was a CID probe. Over time this also became slower, with no result in the end. The case would have taken a different shape if it had happened now as the masses would have pushed for a fair probe,” said internal medicine specialist Subhankar Chatterjee, a party colleague of Biswas.