Police on Sunday arrested a homeopath in Birbhum's Muraroi on charges of raping a nurse working at the same rural government facility, but villagers protested that the doctor had been "framed".
"We have arrested the doctor following a complaint of rape lodged by a nurse," said Raj Narayan Mukherjee, Birbhum police superintendent.
Coming in the wake of the August 9 RG Kar brutality, where a postgraduate trainee doctor was raped and murdered inside the Calcutta hospital, the Birbhum incident caused an uproar.
"It is very sensitive case as the nurse alleged that she was raped by the doctor inside the hospital," said a health official.
A source said the 35-year-old nurse lodged a complaint with the Birbhum police accusing homeopath Chayan Mukherjee of raping her at the hospital.
The nurse primarily lodged a complaint with the Muraroi I block medical officer of health. The BMOH forwarded it to Sovan Dey, the chief medical officer of health of Rampurhat health district. "As the case was very sensitive, I immediately forwarded the complaint to the police," said CMOH Dey.
Police officers of Rampurhat immediately recorded the statement of the victim and started a case against the doctor.
Soon after the complaint was lodged, the accused doctor fled.
A team of Birbhum police, however, arrested the doctor on Sunday morning from Kolaghat in East Midnapore where he had hidden.
"We have brought the accused from Kolaghat to Rampurhat on Sunday afternoon. He will be produced in Rampurhat court on Monday," said a police officer.
Many villagers, on Sunday, however agitated in front of the hospital claiming that the doctor was a victim of a conspiracy.
"The doctor is very popular and he takes very good care of local people. We do not believe that a man like him was involved in rape," said a villager.
They claimed that the police should investigate why the nurse did not lodge any complaint with the officers at the police camp inside the hospital premises.
"We will fight for our doctor if he is not released. We smell a conspiracy in this entire eposide," said a villager.
The nurse declined to speak to reporters.
Arrested Mukherjee said that the allegation levelled against him was "completely fabricated".
