Bengal junior doctors end ceasework, threaten to go on hunger strike if demands not met in 24 hours

"We are calling off our 'total cease work'. But we will continue our sit-in protest. We will give the state administration 24 hours to fulfill our demands or else we will start a hunger strike till death," an agitating doctor, Debasish Halder of Kolkata Medical College and Hospital, said.

Dr Aniket Mahata, one of the protesting doctors, stressed that the protests will continue. “We have ended the cease-work not the agitation. Protests will continue in various forms. We will see it to the end till we get justice. We will continue our sit-in and start a hunger strike after completing our duties.”

The West Bengal junior doctors have returned to complete ceasework over their demands related to the RG Kar rape-murder incident, more than a week after resuming their services at only emergency units.

The junior doctors returned to complete ceasework on October 1 after their detailed discussion following the Supreme Court's fresh hearing on the case, which the Central Bureau of Investigation is now probing.

The protesters resumed partial services on September 21 after the government agreed to some of their demands and assured them to fulfill the rest.

However, the doctors had threatened to go on ceasework again if their demands including their proper security, removal of health officials, and elimination of threat culture were not fulfilled in entirety.

The junior doctor started their protest after a 31-year-old junior PGT was brutally raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.

Though Kolkata Police was quick to arrest civic volunteer Sanjoy Roy in connection with the incident, West Bengal junior doctors suspect there are more than one behind the incident.

The case is currently being probed by the CBI under the monitoring of the Supreme Court.

The CBI has arrested ex-RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh, who was already in custody for alleged financial irregularities in the hospital, and a cop in connection with the case.

Prior to CBI's investigation, the state administration came under the scanner over its alleged cover-up, delay in filing FIRs, demolition work near the crime scene, posting of Ghosh to the same post at another college after his resignation from RG Kar.