Year after R G Kar outrage protest leaders face legal battles, transfers and stalled careers

One year after the brutal rape and murder of a junior doctor inside R G Kar Medical College and Hospital ignited an unprecedented doctors’ protest across West Bengal, the movement’s leaders are themselves fighting a different battle — one against legal harassment, career roadblocks, and personal setbacks.

This week, police served fresh summons to doctors Aniket Mahato, Ashfaqulla Naiya, Kinjal Nanda, and Debashis Halder — all prominent voices in last year’s agitation. Each is entangled in a web of FIRs, court cases, and, in several instances, controversial transfers they claim were designed to punish them for speaking out.

Just three months after their February postings, Mahato, Naiya, and Halder were abruptly shifted to hospitals far from their original allocations — Raigunj in Uttar Dinajpur, Purulia, and Malda respectively. They have challenged the moves in the Calcutta High Court, calling them retaliatory. The state insists the transfers were routine.

For Mahato, the fallout has been severe. He has refused to join his remote posting while the matter is in court, leaving him without a salary for months. “I haven’t been able to practice medicine. I am sitting idle… this has also affected me mentally,” he said.

The troubles have gone beyond transfers. Police have lodged cases against the doctors for unlawful assembly and allegedly injuring personnel during protests. Naiya’s home was searched earlier this year over a complaint about his medical degree. The West Bengal Medical Council has also questioned Nanda over his acting career, seeking details about his service record and permissions.

The movement that began on August 9, 2024 — demanding justice for the murdered doctor and systemic reforms to prevent such crimes — once brought Kolkata to a standstill and drew solidarity nationwide.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held multiple rounds of talks, even making a surprise visit to the protest site. Partial agreements were reached, but momentum flared again after a harassment incident at Sagar Dutta Hospital in September led to a “fast to death” that ended only in late October.

While the sole accused, civic volunteer Sanjoy Roy, was convicted in January, protest leaders insist questions remain over alleged evidence tampering and whether others were involved. Some demands — like installing CCTV in hospitals and transferring certain officials — have been met, but others, including a central patient referral system and filling vacant posts, remain stalled.

Today, the once-teeming protest site at R G Kar is reduced to a few banners and fading artwork. The fight continues, but in quieter forms — legal petitions, deputations, and lingering distrust between a government that says reform is in progress and doctors who feel abandoned by the very system they serve.