Female doctor assaulted in West Bengal state-run hospital, BJP targets TMC govt over 'women security'

The incident came to light just a year after a female doctor was raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, an episode that triggered widespread protests in 2024.

In Uluberia, the incident occurred at Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Government Medical College and Hospital on Monday.

According to reports, one of the arrested persons is a police home guard.

“The doctor has lodged an official complaint. We have filed a First Information Report. The two persons named in the FIR have already been arrested right after the assault,” Jadhav Shubham Pandurang, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (Uluberia), told The Hindu.

An investigation into the incident is currently underway.

The doctor has alleged that she was assaulted during the heated interaction, where the people accompanying a patient started escalating tension in the hospital premises.

“I was on duty. I was conducting examinations on the ailing patient. The patient party started hitting me and one of them claimed that he is a high-ranking police official and a ruling party worker, but when police reached the spot, he said he is a home guard,” the doctor was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

Targeting the ruling Trinamool Congress-led government, the Bharatiya Janata Party said the incident showed women in Bengal are 'terrifyingly unsafe'.

"A woman doctor was harassed and threatened with rape inside the hospital by a Home Guard! The doctor also alleged that, there were no security personnel present at the time," BJP MP Sukanta Majumdar wrote on X.

"The victim is now traumatised and living in fear. No matter how much the failed Chief Minister @MamataOfficial tries to shirk responsibility, she and her incompetent, exposed police administration are squarely to blame," he said.

"Under Mamata Banerjee’s rule, women in Bengal are terrifyingly unsafe and each such incident shows the Trinamool government’s sins have overflown their limits," he said.