A CID team on Monday questioned a resident medical officer of Midnapore Medical College and Hospital in connection with the death of a 30-year-old woman and the complications suffered by three other women after childbirth earlier this month.

CID officers said Soumen Das was questioned at Bhabani Bhawan for more than an hour. The agency has questioned several persons, including senior and junior doctors and nurses at the medical college, in connection with the case.

Sources said the sleuths asked Das where he was on the night of January 8 and the next morning when five women underwent the C-section at the medical college.

One of the women, Mamoni Ruidas, from Garbeta in West Midnapore, gave birth to a boy on January 8 and passed away two days later after developing complications.

The condition of the other three women turned critical and they were shifted to SSKM Hospital. One of them has been discharged.

The state government has suspended 12 doctors, including six postgraduate trainees, for alleged negligence. Das is among the dozen.

Within hours of the state government suspending the doctors, the CID lodged an FIR with Kotwali police station in West Midnapore against the 12 under several sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including Section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

Sources in the CID said Das was responsible for attending to patients in need of emergency intervention arriving at the medical college.

Das had not allegedly turned up at the operating theatre when the C-section was performed on the five women in the absence of senior doctors, investigators said.

“We wanted to know whether he was aware that the procedure was performed at the medical college in the absence of senior doctors. We also asked him what
he did after knowing…about the condition of the mothers,” said a senior CID officer.

“His statements have been recorded. We told him that if required, he would be summoned again for questioning.”

Last week, the CID had questioned two senior doctors of the medical college — Dilip Kumar Pal and Himadri Nayek, both assistant professors — as part of its probe into alleged negligence.

CID sources said several doctors from the medical college would be interrogated over the next few days.

“Some of them have been questioned before,” the officer said. “We want to clarify
several points during the next rounds of questioning based on the information
collected after questioning a few.”

Senior officials at Swasthya Bhawan said resident medical officer Das was questioned by a team from the health department that visited the hospital after Mamoni Ruidas died and the other three mothers were shifted to SSKM Hospital.