Junior doctors, interns at Kolkata govt. hospital allege threats over stampede claims

An ambulance carrying Durga Puja pandal stampede victims stops in front of the emergency building of Medical College Kolkata.

Junior doctors and interns at Medical College Kolkata, a government institution in the West Bengal capital, have said that they were facing continued threats and intimidation after flagging alleged mismanagement and a lack of basic facilities in the treatment of victims of last week’s Durga Puja pandal stampede, which claimed 19 lives.

“There is a constant attempt to attack the junior doctors and interns for speaking about the lack of facilities at the hospital and the mismanagement while they tried to treat the people injured in the stampede,” Debasish Haldar, a member of the West Bengal Junior Doctors Front (WBJDF), said on Sunday (October 25, 2026).

Mr. Haldar also said they had repeatedly raised concerns with the State Health Department about the lack of basic facilities at government hospitals. He alleged that the department and hospital administrations were trying to distract attention from the real issues, politicise the matter and shift the blame on to junior doctors.

The junior doctors alleged that they had received threatening WhatsApp messages and that their families had also been targeted in an attempt to intimidate them.

They also accused Dr. Birupaksha Biswas, who was embroiled in controversy during the protests over the 2024 RG Kar rape and murder case, of threatening them following the recent stampede. Soumyadeep De, an intern, filed a police complaint against Dr. Biswas by email at Bowbazar police station over the alleged threats.

During the RG Kar movement, several junior doctors had accused Dr. Biswas and others of masterminding the alleged threat culture in government hospitals.

“Has the threat culture we protested against during the RG Kar incident really ended?” Mr. Haldar asked.

Responding to the allegations, West Bengal Health Minister Dr. Sharadwat Mukherjee said they did not represent the entire community and could not speak for all junior doctors and interns in government hospitals.

“Who made them the representatives of junior doctors and interns? This is a very small cohort of people and does not represent all junior doctors and interns in government hospitals. These are what we call ‘dimagi naxals’. They are self-proclaimed leaders. If there were no elections to make them leaders, then they cannot officially be called representatives,” the Minister told The Hindu on Monday.

Meanwhile, several senior doctors also expressed support for their junior counterparts, voicing solidarity and issuing joint statements.

“They (State government) are refusing to address the real issues and are conducting a witch-hunt against junior doctors. If there is a standard operating procedure recommending that injured patients be referred from government hospitals to private facilities, then we need to be made aware of it,” Dr. Subarno Goswami, a senior member of the West Bengal unit of the Joint Doctors Forum, said.

Hours after the stampede late on October 17, junior doctors and interns at Medical College, Kolkata, held a press conference to raise several allegations about the government’s healthcare system.

“We were asked to give the families of patients the option of treating the injured at a private hospital... Medical College Kolkata is a tertiary hospital. How can a patient be referred from a tertiary hospital?” Mr. De, an intern at the medical college, said during the press conference outside the hospital’s Emergency building at 2 a.m. on October 18.

The press conference came hours after victims and injured people were rushed to the medical facility from Chorbagan Sarbajanin Durga Puja, where several people were injured in the stampede.

Days later, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari questioned why junior doctors had held a press conference during duty hours and warned that action would be taken against them if they had been scheduled to be on duty.

“I have asked the Health Minister and Health Secretary to submit a report on whether these doctors were on duty when they held the press conference in front of the media like political leaders,” Mr. Adhikari had said at Swastha Bhawan.