A new platform for junior doctors emerged on Saturday. One made up primarily of people accused of running a culture of threat and intimidation in Bengal’s government medical colleges — its formation coinciding with a mass convention held by their accusers: the doctors protesting the August 9 atrocity.

On Saturday, they claimed innocence and said they had been “framed” for their refusal to join the doctors’ strike that had worsened many patients’ suffering.

“We too want justice for Abhaya (a name given to the postgraduate trainee whose rape and murder at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9 triggered the doctors’ agitation). We were at the forefront of the movement,” Sreesh Chakraborty, an intern at RG Kar, told a news conference at the Press Club.

“But we were opposed to the prolonged cease-work that tormented so many patients. We were targeted because of that. We were framed. An inquiry committee was set up. It was completely biased against us. We were not allowed to present our case. We were expelled. Finally, we got some relief from the high court.”

In short, those protesting against the so-called “threat culture” have now been accused of the same offence.

The RG Kar authorities had on September 11 barred 51 junior doctors from entering the campus and formed a committee to probe the allegations of intimidation against them.

On October 5, a meeting of the special college council decided to “expel” 10 of the accused from the medical institution “till further orders”.

A high court vacation bench on October 22 put an interim stay on the “punitive” actions, saying any final decision had to go through the government.

On Saturday, the accused doctors announced the formation of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Association to counter the “smear campaign”.

“Aniket Mahata (a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar and one of the familiar faces of the doctors’ protest) branded us ‘notorious criminals’ in front of the chief minister at the Nabanna meeting. We were called molesters. These are baseless allegations. This is an attempt to malign us in front of the entire society,” Chakraborty said.

Around the time the doctors accused of promoting a “threat culture” were proclaiming innocence, the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, which has been spearheading the campaign against them, vowed to intensify the movement in the coming days.

The protesting junior doctors hosted a mass convention at a packed RG Kar auditorium on Saturday. Many who could not find a place inside watched the proceedings on a giant screen set up outside the Platinum Jubilee Building on the campus.

Several prominent people unconnected with the medical profession participated in the meeting.

“In the past couple of months, we have seen different languages of protest. Common people have been the most vital cog in our movement. When we were staging a demonstration in searing heat and humidity, we had people trying to comfort us with hand fans,” Mahata said at the meeting.

He alleged a tardy probe by the CBI into the August 9 brutality. “The primary CBI chargesheet is a carbon copy of what the police had been saying,” he said.

Debashis Halder, a senior resident at Medical College and Hospital Kolkata and another prominent face of the protest, said: “How can we be assured that such brutality will not happen again? Or that the police will not try to cover it up as they did the last time? We saw our chief minister take the side of the people involved in a threat culture. Our movement won’t stop until we get justice.”

Asked about the new outfit, Mahata said: “The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front is not opposed to this new organisation. But we have to look at the people behind this outfit. Some of them were linked to the students’ wing of the ruling party. Perhaps they want to set up this platform with the help of the ruling party.”

The convention ended with a torchlight-and-candle rally around the RG Kar campus. The junior doctors announced another protest rally on October 30, from the office of the West Bengal Medical Council to the CGO Complex in Salt Lake that houses the CBI’s office.

The new association claimed the protesting doctors had “raised Rs 4.75 crore in the name of Abhaya”.

“We want to know what was done with that money,” Chakraborty said.

Sourav Kumar Das, an RG Kar intern and a member of the new organisation, said: “The way we were shown the door is deplorable. So many patients suffered because of this cease-work. Many of them were forced to go to the private sector (hospitals).”

The organisers sought a meeting with the chief minister. “We demand a fair probe, even a judicial inquiry. We request the chief minister to grant us an audience. Madam, you have heard only one side; please give us a hearing as well,” Das said.

During a meeting at Nabanna with junior doctors and the principals of five government medical colleges in Calcutta on October 21, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had disapproved of the stringent action RG Kar authorities had taken bypassing the health department.

The next day, hearing a petition from the doctors who had been punished, Justice Kaushik Chanda of Calcutta High Court issued the interim stay on the action.

The judge remarked during the hearing: “The principal should have obtained approval from the health department before taking any action against the accused.”