Engineer Who Saved Lives During Covid Faces 5-Year Ordeal After False Allegations: Crime Branch Chargesheets Two Hospital Technicians
By Our Correspondent
Agartala, August 5, 2025
A shocking case of professional injustice has come to light in Tripura’s premier healthcare institution, AGMC & GBP Hospital, where a dedicated biomedical engineer Ratul Dey, who voluntarily stepped forward during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic to repair life-saving oxygen infrastructure was later falsely implicated in a case of alleged sabotage.
The engineer, Shri Dey currently working as a contractual Bio-Medical Engineer at AGMC & GBP Hospital, had been approached by hospital authorities in August 2020 to inspect and repair the malfunctioning oxygen supply system when no other expert was available. Despite being a freelancer at the time, he immediately responded to the call for help and worked tirelessly, including during midnight hours, to ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply for critical COVID-19 patients.
One such critical intervention occurred on the night of August 12, 2020, when he was called at 12:46 a.m. to address another malfunction. He reached the hospital by 1:15 a.m., worked until 4 a.m., and successfully restored the oxygen system, a task that contributed directly to saving lives. In an extraordinary display of selflessness, he refused to charge any professional fee for his service, recognizing the emergency nature of the pandemic.
However, to his utter shock, just a day later, on August 13, 2020, a rumor began circulating that someone had attempted to sabotage the hospital’s oxygen supply the previous night. This baseless allegation later turned into a formal FIR filed by the then Medical Superintendent of GBP Hospital, where the engineer was named as one of the suspects.
What followed was an extended period of mental harassment and humiliation. The police began frequent interrogations, and the case was transferred to the Crime Branch, which subjected the engineer Ratul Dey to a grueling 72-hour questioning session. Despite repeated efforts to meet with hospital authorities and even multiple attempts to seek an audience with the Chief Minister of Tripura, he received no response or relief.
This traumatic ordeal, which lasted nearly five years, severely impacted the engineer’s mental health and personal life.
Finally, in a recent development, the Crime Branch filed the chargesheet in court, not against the engineer Ratul Dey, but against two other individuals. One of them, Bimal Ghosh, a multi-purpose worker with no certification in handling oxygen manifolds, was inexplicably assigned the critical role of oxygen technician. Shockingly, he continues to work in the same capacity at the hospital despite his lack of qualification.
This case raises serious questions about internal hospital mismanagement, lack of accountability, and the unfair targeting of skilled professionals like Ratul Dey, who step up in times of public need. The biomedical engineer's contribution during the height of the pandemic remains undeniable, yet he was made to suffer for doing the right thing.
The public and health professionals alike are now calling for proper recognition of the engineer’s service and a formal apology for the years-long harassment he endured.
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