Late Anuradha Saha

Anuradha fell victim to brutal "medical malpractice" (administration of excessive steroids and lack of supportive therapy) by doctors in Calcutta. Two eminent city doctors, medicine specialist Dr. Sukumar Mukherjee and dermatologist Dr. Baidyanath Halder have been convicted for "rash" and "negligent" treatment on 29th May, 2002 - exactly four years and one day after her sad demise. These two doctors were found "guilty" under Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to three months of
rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 3000 (failing which another 20 days of imprisonment) in a judgment by the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Alipore (South 24 Parganas).

This historical judgment by the Criminal Trial Court at Alipore is a win for PBT and for all Indian citizens who until now stood silently with no hope for justice against the delinquent doctors of India who stayed above the law and continued the practice of wrongful medicine without any fear. However, this judgment does not imply that every doctor is "guilty" of malpractice and it is our hope that this judgment does not encourage the public to bring in criminal charges against the doctors at random. However, we also hope that this judgment will make the doctors of India realize that nobody is above the law no matter how influential he/she may be. More importantly, we hope that this judgment will stimulate sweeping changes to bring honesty and transparency in the medical community and specially in the medical councils who have the noble duty to judge impartially the complaints against doctors and to stop malpractice in India. The medical councils in India is inherently flawed with its "doctors only" members whose only purpose is to protect their friends/colleagues without ever caring for the millions of victims of "malpractice". It is because of the corrupt medical councils, the sole protector and regulator of practice of medicine, that the doctors hardly care for their mistakes causing needless loss of thousands of innocent lives everyday.

The primary goal of the PBT is to help the victims of malpractice find justice and to fight to change the present scenario of the medical councils so that the delinquent doctors of India can be disciplined and malpractice can be eradicated.

---Written by the President of P.B.T .(Dr. Kunal Saha)

Dr. Kunal Saha, President of PBT is a resident of Ohio, USA. Dr. Saha graduated from the NRS Medical College in Calcutta before migrating to the USA where he attended the University of Texas - M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas. He also completed a Ph.D. from the same university in Texas and further training at the Columbia University in New York City. Dr. Saha is currently working as a tenure-track faculty at the Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio primarily involved in the study on HIV and AIDS. His research on HIV includes a search for a vaccine against AIDS which is a major threat to worldwide including India. The exemplary movement against malpractice that has been started by Dr. Saha through the sad death of wife is for the common people of India. Our fight will not end till every needless death and/or injury caused from wrongful practice of medicine is stopped and the guilty doctors are brought to justice.

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