Kolkata: The West Bengal crime investigation department formally charged 12 doctors late on Friday (January 17) with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. This action followed the death of a woman after childbirth and the health of three other mothers turning critical at the Midnapore Medical College.
The FIR filed at Kotwali police station in Midnapore town also outlines other serious accusations against the doctors, including reckless or negligent acts endangering human life.
Culpable homicide not amounting to murder is a non-bailable offense, classified under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Convictions can result in imprisonment for a minimum of five years and even extend to life imprisonment.
On Thursday, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said, “Action is being taken against those who have not performed their duties. I have heard that one of those doctors had performed three surgeries elsewhere.”
The West Bengal Medical Council had earlier suspended the 12 doctors.
Junior doctors from the anaesthesia and gynaecology departments at the hospital launched an indefinite strike on Friday to protest the suspension of their colleagues.
“If there is clear dereliction of duty, a government doctor can definitely be show-caused or suspended. However, suspending the PGTs [post-graduate trainees] on duty was an unadulterated act of vengeance,” said Dr Koushik Dutta, a senior medical practitioner who has been at the forefront of protests against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.
He continued: “By suspending 12 doctors, the government is sending a clear message: don’t make a fuss about adulterated medicines. If you do, you’ll be suspended.”
Doctors contend that the post-mortem report of the deceased pregnant woman at the Midnapore Medical College does not reveal any evidence of medical negligence and have questioned the rationale behind the suspensions.
The primary allegation leading to the suspension of 12 doctors by the West Bengal government centres around the use of substandard or adulterated saline, which is believed to have contributed to the death of the one mother and the critical illness of three others.
Also read: What the Deaths of Women Due to the Use of Expired Saline Says About Bengal’s Healthcare
Citing the woman’s death certificate, senior practitioner Dr Utpal Banerjee questioned the government’s action and suggested the saline was to blame, not the doctors.
“The certificate lists septic shock as the cause of death, but there is no evidence of infection during the delivery or at any other point. Then how did septic shock occur? I suspect the infection was introduced through the medication or saline administered to the patient, which led to organ failure and death.”
The alleged adulterated saline was supplied by the Siliguri-based Paschim Banga Pharmaceuticals, which has been under scrutiny. Last month, the Karnataka government urged the Drugs Controller General of India to reassess its quality certification issued by the Central Drugs Laboratory in Kolkata.
The West Bengal government also placed the company under scrutiny in December 2024; yet its products remained in use in state-run hospitals until last week, when the health department issued an order restricting the use of medicines produced by the company.
“The saline being used was tested before according to government rules. It will be tested again, and the government is no longer taking saline from that company,” stated N.S. Nigam, principal secretary for health in West Bengal.
Two cases related to the matter have been filed in the Calcutta high court. The court has directed the chief secretary to submit a report.
On Thursday, a division bench comprising Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya raised critical questions on the state government’s role.
The court asked why it took so long for the state to take action after the agency was ordered to stop production and what action had been taken against it.
It also ordered compensation to the deceased woman’s family.
There are multiple allegations that substandard and adulterated medicines, including saline solutions, are being used in government hospitals and medical colleges across the state. Many in the medical fraternity assert that these are administered to patients without proper quality checks.
Also read: Bengal Police Conduct Searches at Doctor’s House Days After He Speaks to Reporters on ‘Saline Scam’
Following the publication of The Wire‘s report detailing allegations of adulterated medicines in West Bengal’s state-run hospitals, a doctor came forward with a harrowing account of similar deaths that occurred in 2015 at the Alipurduar District Hospital in north Bengal.
Initially, these deaths were attributed to childbirth complications and communicated to the families of the deceased women.
However, Dr Udayan Mitra, a gynaecologist on duty, along with two other doctors, grew increasingly concerned about the recurring fatalities. Suspecting the hospital’s supply of Ringer’s lactate (RL) saline, they conducted an informal experiment. They instructed the families of some patients to procure saline from external sources, observing a marked improvement in patient outcomes.
After closely monitoring this for several days, they formally alerted the hospital superintendent on June 11, 2015 through a letter. The letter detailed the deaths of two women within a single day, directly linking them to the use of the hospital’s saline supply, which was also used for treating patients with jaundice and other conditions.
Despite the evidence presented, the government remained unresponsive.
The following year, on June 21, 2016, the state health department issued a show-cause notice (C 156 21-4-2016) to Mitra, accusing him of professional misconduct. Later, he was transferred to another district.
“There is definitely a big game being played, and this is a planned corruption at the top level. From whom is the government buying substandard or adulterated medicines and saline? As a result, patients are losing their lives. As a government doctor, I cannot do the wrong thing knowingly and harm patients, so I resigned from my job. A lady doctor at a government hospital was murdered for complaining about substandard and adulterated medicines,” alleged Mitra.
Udayan Mitra’s letter to the Alipurduar District Hospital superintendent. Photo by arragement.
Dr Pantha Dasgupta, a senior doctor from the neighbouring Jalpaiguri district, said, “The system he opposed ten years ago has not only persisted but has further entrenched itself. A disturbing trend now is to punish doctors for voicing their concerns. This jeopardises the lives of countless innocent patients. If one fraudulent company is shut down, another will inevitably emerge.”
Dasgupta said he resigned from his government medical position a few years ago after finding himself unable to withstand the pressure exerted by the authorities.
Unfavourable workplace conditions have led to the resignation of 18 doctors from government-run hospitals in North Bengal in the past few years.
According to doctors, there were reports of multiple deaths after childbirth across several government hospitals in the state in 2015, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Between January and May 2023, over ten women admitted to Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital lost their lives after childbirth following the administration of RL solution, Dr Aniket Mahato, a spokesperson of the Junior Doctors’ Movement, claimed.
Mahato asked: “In all these cases, the women experienced kidney failure and organ dysfunction after receiving RL solution, leading to their deaths. Doctors suspected the quality of the RL saline and informed their superiors. Following an investigation, the government stopped the supply of RL saline from July onwards.
“Whenever a woman dies after childbirth, a report is sent to the Health Bhavan for audit. Why isn’t the government investigating why there are so many complaints about the RL saline supplied by their approved company?”
Dr Bishan Basu, a senior oncologist associated with government hospitals and the author of multiple books on public health, sarcastically remarked, “If you give a solution of potassium cyanide instead of saline, or poison in the guise of medicine, and if the doctor is responsible – no, if the doctor is a ‘senior doctor’ – then the patient is bound to recover! Our state government is not fascist – it is just slightly corrupt, a lesser evil – so poison in medicines/saline cannot harm the patients of this state.”
Translated from the Bengali original by Aparna Bhattacharya.
