West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC) has written to the Royal College of London (RCL) seeking to verify the Fellowship of Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) certificate of Dr Santanu Sen, suspended Trinamul Congress leader and former MP of Rajya Sabha.

The RCL has recently responded to the WBMC through an email assuring to verify the FRCS certificate of Dr Sen as soon as possible.

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Manas Chakraborty, registrar of the state medical council, told The Statesman on Saturday, “We are expecting that the RCL would send us the verification report by Monday. Hardly, 10 days ago we had mailed to the RCL seeking to know whether Dr Sen’s FRCS certificate issued by it is authentic or not.”

“The RCL authorities informed us through an email that their office remained closed because of Christmas holidays till 6 January. The state medical council may either cancel Dr Sen’s medical registration or ask him not to use the fellowship beside his name in his letterhead pad or other official papers if his FRCS certificate is not authentic,” Mr Chakraborty said.

Dr Sen is a MBBS doctor along with the FRCS (Glasgow) certificate and he has been using the professional qualifications in his letterhead pads. Interestingly, he is yet to register his FRCS qualification with the state medical council, Mr Chakraborty said, adding, “It’s mandatory for registered doctors to update all his or her professional qualifications with the National Medical Commission (NMC) and respective state medical councils.”

“We contacted Dr Sen and asked him about the authenticity of his fellowship. We also sought his clarifications on why he doesn’t register his FRCS tag with the council. He submitted a photocopy of the fellowship certificate to the council after we asked him to show evidence. We have already sent a scanned copy of the certificate to the RCL so that they can verify it,” according to the registrar of the WBMC.

Rubbishing the allegations of the WBMC Dr Sen told The Statesman, “I have done my FRCS in 2019 and got PID number 132449 from Glasgow University also. Anyone can verify my fellowship using the PID number in the FRCS site. I have also submitted all my documents including fees required registration to the council requesting it to enlist my fellowship. Surprisingly, the council is sitting idle on my request.”

“I have also submitted the copy of the authorisation letter to the council so that they can verify my details in connection with the fellowship from the university. The letter has been sent to the university in the UK authorising it to share the details to the council as and when the latter wants to verify,” he said.

“There are so many doctors who also have fellowships from different universities and other medical institutes outside India but how many of them register their additional qualifications in the state medical council. The council’s action against me is nothing but a political vendetta,” he said.

Trinamul Congress on Friday suspended Dr Sen for his anti-party activities like giving statements in media after the rape and murder of a woman doctor at R G Kar Medical College Hospital landing the state government in embarrassments.