Twenty-two hours after the agitating junior doctors started their ‘march to Lalbazar’ on Monday afternoon, the Kolkata Police on Tuesday afternoon finally removed three-tier barricades with 9-ft high iron fences installed at three points at B B Ganguly Street-Phears Lane Crossing and allowed a delegation of 22 protestors to meet the commissioner of police Vineet Kumar Goyal to submit their charter of demands.

Under pressure of the peaceful agitation of the junior doctors for the past 22 hours on B B Ganguly Street, police also allowed them to reach Bentinck Street, hardly 100-metre away from the Lalbazar, KP headquarters, this afternoon.

After submitting deputation to Mr Goyal, around 4 pm, the protestors, including postgraduate trainee (PGT) doctors, house staff, interns and medical students of different state government medical colleges and hospitals, withdrew their ‘march to Lalbazar’ programme and road blockade. They were squatting on B B Ganguly Street since Monday after police prevented them from entering into city police headquarters.

“We have submitted a deputation to the CP demanding his resignation from the post because he was completely failed to prevent the incident of vandalism inside the R G Kar Medical College Hospital on 14 August night,” said Dr Aniket Mahato, one of the 22-member delegates, who met Mr Goyal at his office and discussed about their demands for more than an hour.

“The CP has gracefully accepted the deputation that we have read out in front of him. We have discussed all points, including police inaction to probe the horrific rape and murder of our colleague because they (police) have tampered and altered evidences in connection with the incident initially. We asked the CP sir whether he would resign from the post taking responsibility for police inaction,” Dr Mahato said.

KP was investigating the incident initially but handed over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigations after directives of the high court.

“He has admitted the charges of police failure in tackling the R G Kar Hospital issue. He said, ‘I am satisfied with my own performance but I would gladly accept if I am removed from the post,” Dr Mahato claimed, adding, “We didn’t get any positive response from him and we will withdraw the sit-in-demonstration programme today. But will continue our agitation demanding justice.”

Today’s meeting between the commissioner and agitating junior doctors was an unheard-of event in the more than 160 years’ history of KP as the city police chief received a memorandum seeking his resignation. The delegates also offered a plastic model of spine to the top cop symbolizing how police became ‘spineless’ to deal with the R G Kar Medical College Hospital issue.

Agitating doctors, today, stuck to their decision to continue their protest by squatting on B B Ganguly Street till 2 pm when police were not meeting their demands.

Senior police officials like additional CP (III) Santosh Pandey and Joint CP (traffic) Rupesh Kumar asked them to withdraw the agitation. The agitators were found urging police officers by saying to them, “We are unarmed and sitting here since last night. We want to march to Bentinck Street peacefully following human-chain so that no trouble can happen.”

Finally, an agreement was reached. Police removed the barricades at three points and allowed them to reach Bentinck Street.

Showing solidarity with the doctors, people watching the protest were also found shouting slogans seeking justice for the incident.

The march organized by West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF), a newly formed platform of junior doctors, had started on Monday afternoon from College Square close to Medical College Hospital (MCH).

The protestors claimed that it was their moral victory after they were allowed to meet the CP and demanded his resignation.