KOLKATA: A day after the Supreme Court ordered CISF protection for the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata where a trainee doctor was recently raped and murdered, the paramilitary force with 150 personnel was deployed there, while protests against the horrific crime continued across the city on Wednesday.Stung by the Supreme Court questioning the haste with which RG Kar’s principal Sandip Ghosh was appointed as head of another institution, the West Bengal government on Wednesday cancelled it to limit damage. It had appointed him principal of the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital hours after he had put in his papers.The state government had appointed Dr Suhrita Pal as the new principal of RG Kar in place of Ghosh. But she was working from the Swasthya Bhavan, the health department’s headquarters, instead of coming to the college. Her appointment, too, was cancelled.Besides, RG Kar superintendent Bulbul Mukhopadhyay and the head of the department of the hospital’s chest medicine department, Arunava Dutta Choudhury, were removed.Senior CISF officer K Pratap Singh told reporters, “We have come here for some assignment. Let us finish our work, then senior officers will brief you. I am doing my job.” Nivedita Sarkar, a student of RG Kar, said, “If we feel safe after the CISF taking charge of the hospital security, we would request the Central government to retain it on the campus for a few months more.”The SC on Tuesday had pulled up the state government and questioned the Kolkata Police’s response when a rampaging mob vandalised the hospital early August 15. Earlier in the day, junior doctors and medical students took out a march to Swasthya Bhavan asking why the government failed to take any step against Ghosh despite serious allegations of corruption against him. Opposition parties too hit the streets. The Congress held a march to Lalbazar, the police headquarters, seeking to know why the personnel in khaki tried to pass off the murder as suicide and seeking speedy justice for the victim. Some Congress leaders were arrested and later released. Led by Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar, BJP leaders held a sit-in in Shyambazar, demanding justice of the victim and the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
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