PBT president, Dr. Kunal Saha, lodged a private complaint case under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 120b (“criminal conspiracy”) and section 500/501 (“criminal defamation”) against West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC) president and a sitting MLA for the ruling TMC party, Dr. Nirmal Maji, for his verbal abusive and defamatory attack after Dr. Saha criticized the council president for trying to perform dialysis of his pet dog using the dialysis machine at a premier government hospital for humans (SSKM Hospital in Kolkata) putting the lives of innocent patients in serious danger. Bankshall Court in Kolkata took cognizance of the criminal complaint against Dr. Maji who surrendered before the court on 7th March, 2018 and was released on bail as the case is still pending for the trial to begin. Response to an RTI application revealed this week that it was the WBMC, and not Dr. Maji, that paid a total of Rs. 45,740/- (forty-five thousand seven hundred forty rupees) as legal fees thus far in defense of Dr. Maji. None of the WBMC officials/members are even remotely involved or made as a respondent/accused in this criminal case that was filed solely against Dr. Maji and another private citizen (editor of a newspaper that carried the defamatory comments by Dr. Maji). This gross abuse of public funds (from WBMC budget) by Dr. Maji to pay for his personal legal expenses through manipulation of the council office as well as through extraneous political influence not only provides strong evidence of gross transgression of legal and moral boundaries in the highest medical regulatory authority in the state, it also underscores presence of wide-spread corruption inside the WBMC. PBT lodged a formal complaint with the state health department today seeking investigation and exemplary disciplinary action against all individuals involved with this sordid state of affairs in the medical council.
