Kolkata:

Fulfilling some of its key promises made to the protesting doctors during their meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday, the West Bengal government has transferred Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal as well as the state’s Director of Medical Education and Director of Health Services.

Mr Goyal has been replaced by Manoj Kumar Verma, a 1998-batch officer, who held the post of Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) to which he was appointed in January this year. Mr Verma had taken over from Jawed Shamim, who was seen as one of the frontrunners for the Kolkata Police Commissioner’s post. Mr Shamim will now be replacing Mr Verma.

Vineet Goyal, who is a 1994-batch officer and had been the Kolkata Police Commissioner since December 2021, will be assuming charge as the Additional Director General of Police and Inspector General of Police (Special Task Force).

The transfers and appointments were announced in a notification on Tuesday afternoon and included the names of four other police officers as well. Among them was Deputy Commissioner (North Division) Abhishek Gupta, who has been replaced by Dipak Sarkar. The North Division is where the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital is located and the parents of the trainee doctor who was raped and murdered at the hospital on August 9 had alleged that Mr Gupta had offered them money.

Shortly after the notification on the police officers was released, the Bengal government announced that Dr Kaustav Nayak had been removed as the Director of Medical Education and Dr Debasish Halder as the Director of Health Services.

The order by the health department said Dr Swapan Soren has been appointed the new in-charge director of health services and Dr Suparna Dutta the officer on special duty for medical education.

Dr Nayak will take charge as the Director of the Institute of Health and Family Welfare while Dr Halder has been posted as the officer on special duty (public health) at Swasthya Bhawan.

‘Younger Brothers’

Doctors, who have been protesting since the rape and murder came to light, finally met Chief Minister Banerjee on Monday after talks fell through several times over a demand for live streaming of the meeting. The West Bengal government had termed Monday’s invitation its “fifth and final” invite.

While Ms Banerjee had earlier said that Mr Goyal had offered to resign multiple times and asked the protesting doctors to wait, given the upcoming Durga Puja celebrations, she announced on Monday that the Kolkata Police Commissioner would be replaced, as would the Deputy Commissioner (North Division) and the two health officials.

Speaking after the meeting, the chief minister said she had accepted 99% of the doctors’ “demands because they are our younger brothers”.

Doctors had become more vocal for the removal of the Kolkata Police Commissioner after the CBI arrested Dr Sandip Ghosh, former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and Abhijit Mondal, officer-in-charge of Tala Police Station (under which the RG Kar Hospital falls) last week and alleged that they tampered with evidence. This lent credence to the doctors’ claim that the case was not handled properly by the Kolkata Police and there was an attempted cover-up.

As their agitation entered its 39th day, the doctors said earlier on Tuesday that the state government accepting their demands was a big victory but a final call on withdrawing their agitation would be taken only after the state government implements its announcements “in true spirit”.

The fresh focus on the role of police following today’s hearing of the Kolkata hospital rape-murder case in Supreme Court has escalated the BJP demand for the dismissal of the city’s police chief Vineet Goyal. Chief Minster Mamata Banerjee has played for time. The police chief, she said, cannot step down immediately in view of the coming Durga Puja, which calls for special stress on law and order. 

“Kolkata Police Commissioner has come to me several times last week and offered to resign,” Ms Banerjee said.  “We have pujo coming up. Someone who is aware of law and order has to be there. If you have patience for a few days, will it be a Mahabharat (big deal)?” she added.

Following the arrest of Sandip Ghose, the former Principal of RG Kar Medical College, the next big demand of the protesters has been the resignation of the police chief. The Opposition parties have thrown their weight behind it. 

The role of the police in the investigation of the young doctor’s rape-murder has raised multiple questions. The woman’s parents have claimed they cremated their daughter’s body under pressure from the police and alleged that a police officer had offered them money to bury the incident. 

There have been complaints about videography and questions why the body’s postmortem was done at RG Kar hospital, which created a conflict of interest of sorts.

The 14-hour delay in filing of the First Information Report has been flagged multiple times, including by the judges of the Supreme Court.

Today, the top court said a key document connected to the postmortem appeared to be missing. 

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud questioned where a certain challan was, that showed what articles of clothing and personal use was submitted for forensic examination. Without that challan, a postmortem cannot be carried out either, he said.

“See the third column on the top, the constable (who brought the body) is supposed to carry this (form). It has been struck off. So there is no reference of this challan when the dead body is sent for examination. You need to explain. If this document is missing, then something is amiss,” said Justice JB Pardiwala, who was part of the three-judge bench.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was representing the state, could not immediately locate it and has sought more time.  

The Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI has said “who collected the samples” for forensics has emerged as a crucial question.