The junior doctors have written to the President of India seeking her “intervention” and drawing her attention to a “network with strong foundations in organised politics” that manages the health services and health education in Bengal.

The letter mentions the alleged mishandling of “the entire forensic and legal proceedings” by police and college authorities following the rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9 that triggered a strike by junior doctors.

Copies of the letter would be sent to the Prime Minister, the Union health minister and the vice-president, says the copy of the letter shared by the junior doctors.

Asked if they were seeking central intervention to deal with Bengal’s health situation, a leader of the junior doctors denied any such intention. “We did not send the copies to the vice-president, Prime Minister or the union health minister. We are not seeking the union government’s intervention,” said Aniket Mahato, a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

“Our legal team advised us that any letter sent to the President of India has to be copied to the Vice President and Prime Minister, which is why we did so,” he added.

Mahato said they wrote to the President because she was the highest authority in the country and the junior doctors wanted to keep her informed.

The correspondence by the junior doctors brought up the issue of “the prevailing culture of threat perpetrated and perpetuated by a menacing handful of health officials, pass-outs and non-medical individuals who hold positions of power and influence within the ruling political party”.

It then goes on to add: “They have laid an intricate network with strong foundations in organised politics that aims to manage and direct the course of functioning of the West Bengal Health Services as well as the West Bengal Medical Education System -- allegedly, from appointments to posts at the higher echelons of the health system hierarchy to allowing undeserving pupils in undergraduate medical education to pass their exams.”

“In between the two extremes lies an organised criminal syndicate, allegedly involved in financial scams, money laundering, bribery and several rackets.”

The letter was shared by the junior doctors on Friday, which immediately led to an impression that it was sent after their failed meeting with chief minister Mamata Banerjee at Nabanna on Thursday. While the junior doctors wanted the meeting to be livestreamed, the state government said the meeting would be recorded but not livestreamed because the RG Kar case was being heard in the Supreme Court.

The junior doctors claimed the letter was sent on Thursday morning, before the meeting with the chief minister was scheduled. “The letter was drafted on Tuesday but sent on Thursday morning. We could not send it on Wednesday as we were busy with the march to Swasthya Bhavan,” said a junior doctor.

“We wrote to the President of India just like we wrote to the Supreme Court of India before September 9 (the day of the hearing of the matter in the Supreme Court) with our demands. We are approaching all government judicial offices to get justice,” a junior doctor told a news conference on Friday evening.

The letter, sent by the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, Said the college authorities at RG Kar and the police had “little regard for either the sanctity of the crime scene...or the victim’s parents”.

The front also wrote that in this “atmposhere of fear, distrust and hopelessness, the junior doctors in West Bengal have been forced to avoid working within the hospital premises”.

In the letter to the President the junior doctors’ front highligted the lack of infrastructure and facilities in government hospitals.