Doctor found dead under mysterious circumstances in Bengal's Jhargram

Jhargram (WB): The body of a doctor working with the Jhargram Medical College and Hospital was on Thursday recovered from inside the room of a rented flat which he shared with his coworkers, police said.

Two syringes and a note, allegedly written by the deceased doctor, identified as Dipro Bhattacharya, who was in his early 30s and working as a senior resident with the hospital’s anaesthesia department since 2023, were also recovered from inside the flat.

Till reports last received, police had moved the body for autopsy.

"The body of the doctor was found on the bed of the flat where he was staying with another doctor. We got a call from them in the afternoon after they discovered him lying on the bed and could not find any pulse on him. We have recovered two syringes and a hand-written note lying next to him. The matter seems to be a case of suicide, but it will be clear once the post-mortem examination is done," a senior police officer of Jhargram District Police told PTI.

The deceased hailed from the southwestern outskirts of Kolkata and had reached Jhargram this morning to resume duties at the hospital following a leave.

Two WhatsApp messages were sent from the mobile phone device of Bhattacharya, one to his wife, a nurse with the SSKM Hospital in Kolkata, and another to a doctors' chat group minutes before he went incommunicado, the police said, adding that the mobile phone device was also seized for a forensic tests.

In the first purported note that he sent to his wife, Bhattacharya detailed the depression on account of personal issues he was struggling to cope with, and that the RG Kar crime fallout pushed him further to his back foot.

The other message that he allegedly sent minutes later to the academic group of RG Kar Hospital doctors, was an outburst against those who supported "threat culture and stood with corruption" in medical college campuses "to save their jobs".

“My soul will haunt you and tear you down to pieces… You all are responsible! You have blood on your hands,” the purported message to the doctors’ group read.

The police officer said, "We are verifying whether or not the two messages sent from his device were actually written by him. But, it seems from our preliminary probe, the doctor was mentally depressed probably due to issues which were related to his professional, personal and family lives," the police officer said.

A nurse from Jhargram Medical College, who is a friend of Bhattacharya's wife, along with two other doctors reached his flat after calls to his number remained unanswered and took assistance of the staff of the lodge to break the lock to the entrance to his flat.

"They found him lying unconscious on the bed. They found no pulse on him and then informed us," the officer said.

In the message allegedly sent by the doctor to his wife, the deceased sought forgiveness for taking this drastic measure and urged her to move on with her life.

A senior medic in the state, who is also a member of the WhatsApp group of doctors, claimed that in his alleged message, Bhattacharya expressed his disgust over the RG Kar Medical College incident.

Asked whether Bhattacharya's death was the fallout of a "threat culture" allegedly practised at the Jhargram Medical College and Hospital, the police officer said that they were talking to his roommate, wife, and colleagues at the hospital to ascertain those possibilities.