Image used for representative purpose only.
| Photo Credit: PTI
A minor girl was allegedly sexually assaulted in the State Government’s SSKM Medical College and Hospital on Wednesday (October 22, 2025) afternoon. The accused was arrested that evening and booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, according to police.
The accused, Amit Mallick, is a former group D staff member and ward boy. He is a resident of Dhapa and was arrested and produced in court on Thursday (October 23, 2025).
“Following a report from the SSKM Outpost, the Bhowanipore PS contacted the victim, and her statement was recorded, after which the case was filed,” police said on Thursday.
It is alleged that Mallick assaulted the minor inside the SSKM Hospital in a toilet after luring her away from her parents. The 14-year-old was with her parents in the out patient department waiting to meet a doctor.
Nurse attacked by drunken man
In another attack, a female nurse was physically assaulted by a drunken man inside a Primary Health Centre at Kaijuli Block in Birbhum district’s Mohammad bazar area on Wednesday night, leaving her severely injured. She was rushed to Suri Super Speciality Hospital, where she received 22 stitches to her head. The accused has been identified as Rajib Kahar, who has been arrested by the local police.
These repeated incidents have raised questions about security inside State-run medical facilities.
Multiple doctors’ forums have condemned the attacks, including the Association of Health Service Doctors and the Joint Platform of Doctors (JPD).
We call for an immediate, comprehensive audit of hospital security protocols across all State facilities to prevent such atrocities,” a statement from the JPD said on Thursday.
A woman was also allegedly publicly sexually harassed by a local strongman in north Kolkata’s Dakhineshwar area on October 21. The survivor said that when she raised the alarm, the accused physically assaulted her. She filed a formal complaint with the police, and the accused was arrested on Wednesday.
Series of incidents
On Monday (October 20), a female doctor was assaulted by a patient’s family at the Uluberia Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Government Medical College and Hospital. The accused men, one of them identified as a police home guard, were accused of threatening to rape the doctor and physically assaulting her inside the hospital.
At the beginning of October, a female medical student from Odisha was sexually assaulted near her medical college in Durgapur by a group of men.
In September 2025, a female member of the medical staff was raped inside a hospital in Panskura by the facility manager.
Last year in 2024, a female resident doctor in RG Kar Hospital was raped and murdered inside the hospital, which took the nation by storm, and protests raged in West Bengal for months.
War of words
The opposition came down heavily on the ruling Trinamool Congress government for the spate of attacks on women inside medical facilities in October 2025.
CPI(M) State secretary Mohammad Salim told The Hindu on Wednesday that such incidents have become “regular” in West Bengal and accused the ruling party of sheltering offenders.
However, Trinamool State Vice-President Jay Prakash Majumdar termed the assaults “a social evil” and said, “Rape and assault of women is a cancer on society and a national problem across geographies.”
Mr. Salim also criticised the ruling party for not learning a lesson from the RG Kar rape and murder and amping up security measures in State-run hospitals and called it a “failure of the the State’s law and order system.”
Published – October 23, 2025 08:57 pm IST
