KOLKATA: Sealdah sessions court censured Monday former principal Sandip Ghosh and the medical superintendent-cum-vice principal (MSVP) for their inaction and apparent attempts to downplay the rape and murder of a 31-year-old resident doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on Aug 9 last year.
Ghosh’s name appeared 12 times in the 172-page judgment sentencing convict Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment. Judge Anirban Das highlighted several administrative failures.
“It is very much clear that the then principal and MSVP of RG Kar Hospital were very much aware, upon receiving the intimation from PW-6 (an associate professor of the department of respiratory medicine), that the victim was raped and murdered on the hospital premises while she was on duty,” the judge wrote. “It is not clear to me why the then principal or the MSVP did not send any official intimation to the police authority about such unnatural death…” the judgment reads, suggesting an attempt to conceal information and a neglect of duty by the hospital’s head.
The court noted efforts by hospital authorities to portray the death as a suicide. Also, the order cited a junior doctor’s testimony, saying an outsider was found sleeping in the “procedure room” on the night of the murder but was driven away by doctors. “This shows there were lapses of security for the doctors,” the court said.
“I condemn such attitude of the RG Kar hospital authorities,” the judge declared, calling for accountability and reform in hospital administration to ensure the safety of healthcare workers.
