Bengal govt transfers ‘close aide’ of arrested ex-principal of RG Kar hospital

Birupaksha Biswas, the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital doctor who was seen at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9 after the rape and murder of a trainee doctor, was transferred by the West Bengal health department on Tuesday to Kakdwip Sub-Divisional Hospital in South 24 Parganas district, officials said. The distance between Kolkata and Burdwan town is more than 101 km.
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The order was passed shortly after the suspension of former RG Kar Medical College principal Sandip Ghosh who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday night on corruption charges. Ghosh has been interrogated by CBI in the rape and murder case as well and made to undergo a polygraph test.
The health department, headed by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, did not take any administrative action against Ghosh till he was arrested.
Biswas was alleged to be one of the close aides of Ghosh and doctors and medical students, who have been carrying out a relentless agitation since August 9, demanded action against him as well.
Senior doctors from various organisations, including the West Bengal chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), alleged after August 9 that Ghosh was running a racket in the health department with the help of several aides, of whom Biswas was one.
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During the agitation, an audio clip went viral in which Biswas was purportedly heard threatening a final-year medical student that the latter would not get his certificate if he did not follow his orders.
Biswas told the media at that time that the audio clip was created using artificial intelligence and the voice was not his.
Biswas, however, admitted that he went to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9 after hearing about the 31-year-old post-graduate doctor’s death but claimed that he never went to the crime scene, the seminar room of the chest department on the third floor of the emergency building.
Biswas said on Wednesday that he has been transferred to Kakdwip but claimed that it was a routine process.
“A merit-based counselling was done six months ago on the basis of my post-graduation marks. I was given the option to go to either Cooch Behar or Jalpaiguri in north Bengal or Kakdwip in south Bengal. I did not want to go to north Bengal and hence opted for Kakdwip,” Biswas told the media.
No government official commented on the transfer.