A senior resident doctor of Jhargram Government Medical College & Hospital was found dead on Thursday. The victim, 29-year-old Dipro Bhattacharya, was a resident of Behala in Kolkata. He used to stay at a hotel in Jhargram’s Ghoradhara.
Dr Bhattacharya had returned to Ghoradhara from Kolkata on Thursday morning after a holiday break. However, his family members and colleagues were unable to reach him throughout the morning. Concerned, his wife contacted the hotel manager and a local friend of her husband.
The hotel officials forced open his hotel room door, which was locked from inside, and found him deceased. Arijit Sinha, the Jhargram district police superintendent, said that two syringes were among the items found near him.
Police discovered a WhatsApp message sent by Bhattacharya, an anaesthetist, to his wife in which he discussed his "personal, mental, professional, and family issues" in detail shortly before his death, Sinha told the media.
Dr. Bhattacharya had sent another message to some WhatsApp groups, where he allegedly discussed issues of “threat culture” and “corruption” within the health sector. He even compared “people who instil fear among all students” to Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of RG Kar.
Amid ongoing investigations into the RG Kar rape and murder case, his message sparked speculation that he may have been impacted by these issues personally. Some junior doctors, who are protesting in the aftermath of the RG Kar incident, have suggested he may have been killed.
The police have declined to comment on the nature of death. “We can only confirm the nature of his death after the post-mortem report arrives. We are investigating all the aspects of the death that have come up so far and we will be able to make comments after we find substantial evidence,” Biplab Karmakar, officer in-charge of local Jhargram police station, told THE WEEK.
Dr. Anurag Chatterjee, another senior resident anaesthetist at Jhargram Government Medical College & Hospital and Bhattacharya’s best friend for 15 years and roommate in Jhargram, says Bhattacharya was struggling to cope with mental health challenges.
“There was no threat culture in our hospital. It’s a very small and new institution. Also, Dipro was in a very happy and healthy marriage,” Chatterjee told THE WEEK.
The two did their schooling together before moving to Bankura Sammilani Medical College for their MBBS. They did their Doctor of Medicine (MD) from RG Kar. For the last two years, they were posted in Jhargram.
Dr. Chatterjee says his friend was in a state of depression and the RG Kar incident had severely hurt him. “All of us were affected but Dipro just could not cope up with it. He would always say how helpless he felt that he was not able to do anything about it.”
However, he is not sure if that was the only reason behind the death of Dr. Bhattacharya, the only son of his parents. He said, “Almost everyone of our age suffers from some mental health issues. It’s not that Dipro was depressed only after the RG Kar incident. Hopefully, the police investigation will reveal the truth.”
