Junior doctors holding their stethoscope shout slogans as they sit on a dharna after the police stopped their march towards Swasthya Bhawan in protest over R.G. Kar Hospital rape and murder incident, in Kolkata. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Joint Platform of Doctors, West Bengal, an advocacy group of medical practitioners, wrote a letter to Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma on Sunday (August 31, 2025), demanding “immediate dismissal of vindictive cases against doctors” in connection with the ongoing protests against the rape and murder at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital (RGKMCH) in the city last year.
“[We] feel shockingly dumbfounded with the deepest sense of dismay in connection with the battery of sordid, domineering course of recent actions from the end of Kolkata Police against the doctors and a section of protesting voices across the society,” the letter reads.
It alleges that different police stations under the Kolkata Police keep sending summons in phases to the doctors “citing some trivial insignificant issues related with democratic protests”, referring to the State-wide agitations by citizens and healthcare workers against the rape and murder of a female doctor on duty at RGKMCH on August 9 last year.
“It is further appalling to see that doctors above sixty years of age are summoned to visit police stations outside the residential area in utter contravention of legal principles,” the members of the Joint Platform of Doctors said in the letter.
‘Repeated summons’
Notably, the All India Federation of Government Doctors’ Associations, on August 30, had written to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee condemning police summons to protesting medical practitioners, especially Dr. Subarna Goswami and Dr. Manas Gumta who are employed with the State government and had been the leading voices in the protests last year.
“I have been sent a summon notice to appear at the Bowbazar police station on September 3 in connection with a protest rally that we had participated in on October 8 last year. Although the police had declined permission for the protest march at the last minute, we went ahead with it. Allegedly, that caused great public inconvenience,” Dr. Goswami told The Hindu, alleging harassment by the police.
The case against Dr. Goswami and Dr. Gumta has been registered under Section 3(5) (acts committed by several persons with common intention), Section 285 (danger, obstruction or injury to any person in any public way or public line of navigation) and Section 126(2) (wrongful restraint) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita.
He added that the Joint Platform of Doctors has planned a rally to the Bowbazar police station on the day of his summon as well as a protest gathering against police excesses in the afternoon of September 3 on the premises of Medical College, Kolkata.
In August this year, senior doctors Dr. Punya Brata Gun and Dr. Tamonas Chaudhuri had been issued summons in connection with a bicycle protest rally this year, demanding justice for the R.G. Kar victim.
Published – September 01, 2025 08:03 pm IST
