Kolkata, Oct 25 (IANS): Aniket Mahato, the face of the movement of the junior doctors in West Bengal against the rape and murder of a fellow junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata, was slapped with a legal notice on Friday by one of the doctors who were suspended by the college council recently on charges of running “threat culture”.

Mahato was slapped with a legal notice for his comments during a meeting between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF) on Monday where described the suspended doctors as “notorious criminals”.

When the Chief Minister, at the meeting, questioned how the college council of R.G. Kar could suspend so many doctors without the consent of the state health department, Mahato countered her and said that the disciplinary committee suspended these doctors after a proper and thorough investigation.

“They were not suspended out of personal vendetta. Those who were suspended were notorious criminals,” Mahato said in his counter-argument at the meeting on Monday.

In the legal notice, one suspended junior doctor Atanu Biswas has cautioned Mahato of approaching the court with a libel suit unless the latter tenders a public apology for his comments within the next three days.

The legal notice was slapped on Mahato just three days after a single-judge vacation bench of the Calcutta High Court on October 22 had put an interim stay on the decision of the authorities of R.G. Kar to suspend 51 doctors attached to the hospital who have been accused of “threat culture” within the hospital premises.

The single-judge bench vacation bench of Justice Chanda also observed that only the state government can make the final decision about the suspension of these doctors.

He said that the resolution passed by the R.G. Kar authorities on October 5 suspending 51 doctors will not be effective.