Kolkata: The agitating junior doctors are yet to decide on whether to call off their ‘cease work’ and rejoin work, despite the West Bengal government appointing senior IPS officer Manoj Kumar Verma as the new Kolkata Police commissioner, replacing Vineet Goyal, fulfilling one of the key demands of the protesters.
The state government also removed Director of Health Services (DHS) Debashis Halder, Director of Medical Education (DME) Kaustav Nayak and Deputy Commissioner of Kolkata Police’s North Division Abhishek Gupta, a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a meeting with the agitating medics and agreed to their demands in a bid to resolve the more than a month-long impasse over the RG Kar hospital incident.
The governing body meeting of the medics to take a call on the ‘cease work’, which started around 6.30 pm, is still underway, one of the protesting doctors said.
“We are holding this meeting to decide on whether to continue with our ‘cease work’, as some of our demands have been fulfilled by the state government,” he told PTI.
The junior doctors have been on a ‘cease work’ since August 9, when the body of the woman medic was recovered with injuries in the seminar hall of the state-run hospital.
Swapan Soren was appointed the interim DHS, while no appointment was announced for the position of the DME.
Banerjee, following marathon discussions with the doctors on Monday night, announced the decision to remove Goyal, who was under fire over handling of the rape and murder of the doctor at RG Kar hospital.
Goyal, a 1994 batch IPS officer, was made the ADG and IGP of West Bengal Police’s Special Task Force (STF), an official notification said. A 1998 batch officer, 56-year-old Verma was the ADG and IGP (Law & Order) before the appointment as Kolkata Police commissioner.
According to officials, none of the transfers were considered a promotion or demotion.
Goyal, an alumnus of both IIT Kharagpur and IIT Kanpur, took charge as the city’s top cop in December 2021, replacing Soumen Mitra.
Earlier, he had held several significant positions in Kolkata Police, including the DCP for the Eastern Suburban Division (ESD), Special Branch (SB), as well as the Headquarters.
His successor, Verma has served as the Barrackpore Police Commissioner and was also the SP of the Counter Insurgency Force. He played a significant role in the state government’s fight against the Maoists in the ‘Junglemahal’ area, and also in the killing of Koteswara Rao, commonly known as ‘Kishenji’.
He was also the additional director at the Directorate of Security, apart from holding significant positions such as IGP of Darjeeling and Superintendent of Police (SP) of Paschim Medinipur.
The state Home and Hill Affairs Department posted DCP (North) Gupta as the Circle Officer of the 2nd Battalion of the Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR).
Gupta, like his boss Goyal, was also under fire in the RG Kar rape-murder case for allegedly offering money to the parents of the deceased doctor soon after her body was found on August 9.
The parents had alleged that Gupta had taken the money, wrapped it in a plastic bag, and offered it to them.
Dipak Sarkar, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) in Siliguri Police Commissionerate, replaced Gupta.
The state also named Jawed Shamim as the ADG and IGP (Law & Order), while Gyanwant Singh was made the ADG and IGP of the Intelligence Bureau (IB).
Tripurari Atharv, who was ADG and IGP of the state STF, was named the new Director of the Directorate of Economic Offences.
