Senior resident doctor of Bengal's Jhargram Medical College found dead in hotel room

Kolkata, Nov 7 (IANS) A serious resident doctor, attached to the Jhargram Medical College & Hospital, was found dead in mysterious circumstances in a hotel room in West Bengal's Jhargram town on Thursday afternoon, officials said.

The deceased has been identified as Dipro Bhattacharya, a senior resident attached to the Anaesthesia Department of the medical college & hospital.

The police suspect this death to be a case of suicide.

According to some of his colleagues, he had been long vocal against the "threat culture" prevailing in different medical colleges & hospitals in the state including that of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital, which had recently been in the national headlines because of the ghastly rape and murder of a woman junior doctor there in August this year.

What has made the death even more mysterious is his last message posted in a WhatsApp group of doctors where he claimed that when he was attached to R.G. Kar, he had been vocal against the threat culture there. He also claimed in the message that those who instil fear among students, and support nepotism are no less guilty than R.G. Kar's former Principal Sandip Ghosh, who is currently in judicial custody.

In the message, he had also reportedly claimed that such people are responsible for the depression, anxiety, and hopelessness of thousands of young doctors.

It is learnt that on seeing the message in the WhatsApp Group on Thursday afternoon, the other doctors in the group tried to contact him over the phone but found it was switched off. Thereafter, they reached the hotel where the Bhattacharya had been staying.

Meanwhile, Jhargram district police had recovered the body of the victim and sent it for a post-mortem examination. For the time being, the district police have registered a case of unnatural death and launched an investigation. The exact reason for the death will only be known after the autopsy report is available.

--IANS

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