Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has said the state government will replace the health secretary if it is established that he ordered repairs to washrooms adjoining the seminar room at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital after the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor in August 2024.
The renovation began a day after the 31-year-old doctor was found dead at the Kolkata hospital on August 9, 2024. The work triggered allegations that changes to the washrooms could have affected evidence connected to the crime scene. Protesters had questioned whether the washroom area formed part of the site relevant to the investigation.
Adhikari said the government would examine the role of the current health secretary, who also held the post at the time of the incident. “PWD handled building maintenance and electrical work. After the victim’s mother spoke to me and the health minister, we would examine whether the current health secretary, who also held the post then, had ordered repairs and, if so, we will replace him,” he said.
The statement places responsibility for determining who authorised the work within the state’s administrative chain. It also brings the maintenance of critical hospital spaces into the wider investigation surrounding the case. The report does not identify an official order for the repairs or establish that the health secretary directed them.
The chief minister was speaking at the inauguration of the medical student cell MeDe Vision’s ninth national conference, organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, at RG Kar. Panihati MLA Ratna Debnath was also present at the event.
Adhikari described the crime as painful, barbaric and shameful. He said the BJP government had suspended three IPS officers—Vineet Goyal, Indira Mukherjee and Abhishek Gupta—in connection with the broader handling of the matter.
He also claimed that a file seeking prosecution of other officials and doctors involved in the case had remained pending with the previous chief minister for two-and-a-half years. According to Adhikari, he granted the required no-objection certificate within a day of taking office. The supplied report does not provide details of the file, the officials named in it or the administrative process behind the clearance.
The chief minister further alleged that a mob vandalised RG Kar on the night of August 14, 2024, with the backing of the then local MLA, and accused the former chief minister of tacitly approving the incident. Those allegations were made as part of his account of the case and its related episodes.
The rape-murder case and related matters are being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Adhikari said his government would pursue justice within legal and constitutional limits and promised that it would act in the case. The next step identified in his statement is an examination of whether the health secretary ordered the repairs and whether that finding warrants replacement.
