Contractual worker alleges rape by manager at Bengal govt hospital

Kolkata: An employee of a private service provider was arrested in Bengal’s East Midnapore district on Monday for allegedly raping a contractual worker deployed by the company at the Bengal government-run Panskura Superspeciality Hospital, police said.

“The accused, Zahir Abbas Khan, has been arrested on the charges filed by the contractual worker. She alleged that Khan called her to his room on the ground floor of the hospital and raped her on Sunday night,” a police official said requesting anonymity.

The survivor, employed by Reliable Service Provider Ltd where Khan was a facility manager, told the local media that he tried to rape her earlier also but she had managed to resist.

“I complained about Khan to a company manager who was posted here earlier but no action was taken. Yesterday, Khan told me that I would lose my job if I resisted him or told anyone. He tried to rape another contractual worker recently,” she said.

A health department official said a report had been sought from the district chief medical officer of health.

The hospital authorities did not make any statement on the incident.

It comes a year after the August 2024 rape and murder of a post-graduate trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Medical College and Hospital. A civic volunteer who worked for the Kolkata police was sentenced to imprisonment for the rest of his natural life in the incident which triggered a nationwide protest by doctors and the civil society.

Aniket Mahato, one of the junior doctors in the forefront of the RG Kar Hospital movement, said: “We have been demanding more safety and security for employees at state-run hospitals. We demand an investigation into the Panskura hospital incident.”