Third arrest made in attack on junior doctor at Howrah government hospital: Bengal police
The West Bengal Police produced the third suspect, Sheikh Samrat, who was arrested from his home in Uluberia, before a Howrah district court on Wednesday
Kolkata: A third suspect was arrested after a junior doctor was allegedly attacked and threatened with sexual assault by a home guard volunteer and his associates at Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Government Medical College and Hospital in West Bengal’s Howrah district on Monday evening, police said.
The West Bengal Police produced the third suspect before a Howrah district court on Wednesday. “The third suspect, Sheikh Samrat, was arrested from his home in Uluberia on Tuesday night. Sheikh Babulal, a home guard and allegedly the prime accused, and his associate Sheikh Hasibur were arrested earlier. All were identified from security camera footage,” a district police officer said, requesting anonymity.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) intensified its attack on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday. “TMC thinks women are weak. Those who carry out crimes like these enjoy the protection of big leaders. It has been heard that Sheikh Babulal is president of the TMC’s local minority cell in Uluberia,” BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the state legislative assembly, wrote on X.
BJP workers staged an agitation in Howrah on Wednesday afternoon and broke through steel barricades that were set up to stop them from reaching the office of the superintendent of the Howrah rural police division.
TMC spokesperson Arup Chakraborty accused the BJP of trying to politicise a crime on which action has already been taken. “We condemn all crimes of this nature. Police have already arrested the accused. BJP leaders are trying to drag politics into this. Why do they keep silent when women and minors are raped in Uttar Pradesh and they don’t get justice?” Chakraborty said.
The incident happened when around a dozen people went to the hospital’s maternity ward with a pregnant woman and demanded that the junior doctor on duty examine her. “According to the complainant, the home guard volunteer claimed to be a police officer. An investigation is on,” a police officer said.
The complainant, a senior resident at the hospital’s gynaecology and obstetrics department, alleged that even the patient kicked her while she was being examined.
The junior doctor said the patient was resisting an abdominal examination. “I did it nonetheless, but found nothing that needed immediate medical attention. When I started examining other patients, people accompanying the woman pressured me to examine her again,” she said.
“I told them a senior doctor would soon be on duty and the patient would be examined. On hearing this, one of the men threatened that I would not reach home alive. He mentioned my private parts and said he would insert an iron rod inside me.”
She said a second man twisted her arms. “The two men hit me on my shoulder. They tried to slap me, too. The incident happened between 5.30 and 5.45 pm inside the ward in front of the nurses and medical attendants.”
Sheikh Babulal and Sheikh Hasibur were arrested soon after the hospital authorities lodged a police complaint.
The hospital, which was set up around three years ago, has formed an inquiry committee, while health department’s principal secretary N S Nigam has sought a report from the hospital.
All three men have been remanded in police custody by the court, the police officer said.
