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A Disgrace To Hippocrates

Politics overshadowed outrage when medical students and doctors killed on mere suspicion

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A Disgrace To Hippocrates
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Mistaken for a mobile thief, Kurban Shah (28) was lynched by medical students and junior doctors at the NRS medical college and hospital hostel in Calcutta in November, 2014. Kurban was found tied to a pillar on a terrace on the third floor. His body bore cuts and signs of slashing with blades and other sharp objects. Police inquiries revealed him to have been a mentally ill married man with four children who had strayed into the hostel.

Although lynching is not uncommon in West Bengal, the incident sent shockwaves because of the involvement of students and junior doctors. “Initial investigation was lackadaisical and shocking,” says Kiriti Roy, director of  human rights group Masoom, referring to the almost two-month delay before police made the first arrests.

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Roy recalls another case from Jagacha, where a young boy who was suspected to have molested a woman was beaten up by a mob and later died in police custody: “The boy had acute myopia and wore high-powered glasses. He was cycling along the road one evening when there was a power outage. He couldn’t see, lost control and knocked into a woman pedestrian. She screamed and a crowd gathered. After a merciless, brutal thrashing, they handed the profusely bleeding boy over to the police. Instead of taking him to the hospital he was put in the lock-up. He died a few hours later.”

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Clinical psychiatrist Dr Debashis Ray feels “such behaviour reflects a sense of powerlessness in the collective unconscious.... If there is a build-up and someone feels that he cannot rely on the police or the government to correct wrongs, being in a group empowers them psychologically to ‘take action’.”

The Kurban Shah case, points out a police officer, got mired in a political controversy when it was alleged that rival factions of the ruling Trinamool Congress, each trying to gain control over the organisation of junior doctors (to garner votes for election to state medical bodies) were trying to ‘influence’ the probe.

Trinamool’s Dr Nirmal Kumar Maji and Dr Santanu Sen found themselves on opposing sides, with the former demanding an immediate probe and arrest of the murderers and Sen demanding that innocent students not be harassed.

Joint commissioner of police, crime, Pallav Kanti Ghosh, told Outlook, “The chargesheet in the Kurban Shah case has now been filed. We have already arrested seven out of the 10 accused (including students and doctors). Three are absconding but the search is on; we are confident of getting the culprits.”

By Dola Mitra in Calcutta

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