NCW to visit Bengal today; state health dept forms panel to probe rape at Panskura hospital

Kolkata, Sep 20 (IANS) The National Commission for Women (NCW) is set to visit Panskura Super Specialty Hospital on Saturday in connection with the rape of a female employee at the medical facility. The East Midnapore District Health Department has also formed a five-member committee to investigate the incident.

The five-member committee, including three women officials from the health department, also includes a female lawyer.

The members of the committee on Friday visited the Panskura Super Specialty Hospital premises in this regard. Later, they also spoke to the hospital superintendent.

According to sources, the West Bengal Commission for Women is scheduled to visit the hospital on Saturday.

The development comes after NCW took suo motu cognisance of the incident and decided to send a team to Panskura on Saturday to talk to the victim and visit the hospital where the alleged crime was committed.

NCW member Dr Archana Majumdar told IANS, "We are on our way to Panskura. We will meet the victim and also visit the hospital. We will brief about our findings later in the day."

Earlier this week, a female medical staffer at the hospital accused the facility’s manager of rape.

The prime accused, Zahir Abbas Khan, has been arrested by the police. The alleged incident occurred on September 14 night, after which the survivor, a contractual staffer, filed a complaint at the Panskura Police Station.

Later, many women from the facility alleged that the accused used to call women to his room and sexually abuse them. Allegations first became public on September 15, after which the accused was arrested by the police from Kolaghat, 15 kms away from the hospital.

Khan was the head of the contractor company that the survivor worked for. The victim also alleged that the accused had threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

On Tuesday, massive protests erupted at the hospital after staff alleged previous complaints to the Medical Superintendent were ignored.

Yesterday, during the five-member committee's visit, several complaints were submitted in writing against the accused facility manager to the members. The committee members examined several issues of medical services, including the safety of the hospital staff. According to sources, the committee members will soon submit their report to the district health department.

The hospital's Superintendent Kaushik Dhal said, "At the moment, no new facility manager has been appointed as an alternative to the accused. However, there has been no problem in the hospital's health services due to him. We have made it clear to the recruiting agency that before appointing a new facility manager in the coming days, we will have to check whether he has any criminal record or not. Along with this, an appeal has also been made to the police to ensure that the accused is severely punished in this incident."

According to the police, the accused will be brought to the hospital soon to reconstruct the crime. At the same time, the accused's police custody is ending next Monday. After that, he will be produced in a court on Tuesday. A request will be made to take the accused into police custody again, according to police sources at Panskura Police Station.

Meanwhile, three representatives of the State Women's Commission reached Panskura on Friday night. The team was led by film director and State Women's Commission Chairperson Leena Gangopadhyay. They spoke to the victim and collected detailed information about the entire matter.

The representatives of the commission also questioned the victim on various issues. Later, they went to Panskura police station and saw the case diary. The representatives of the commission also enquired about the progress of the investigation.

--IANS

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