Dr Santanu Sen, suspended Trinamul Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha MP, lost his government portfolio in the West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC). He is facing a WBMC inquiry to probe the authenticity of his Fellowship of Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) certificate.

Dr Sen was a state government-nominated member in the state medical council. He has been replaced by Dr Asim Sarkar in the body.

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“The council has appointed Dr Asim Sarkar as a state government-nominated representative in the body,” Manas Chakraborty, registrar of the WBMC told The Statesman on Thursday.

Recently, the WBMC has written to the Royal College of London (RCL) seeking to verify his FRCS certificate.

Manas Chakraborty, registrar of the state medical council, said, “We are expecting that the RCL would send us the verification report soon.”

“The RCL authorities have sent us a proforma containing some queries related to the details of his FRCS qualification. We have filled up the proforma and sent it back to the RCL few days ago. 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. Mr Chakraborty added: “It’s mandatory for registered doctor 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 didn’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 sent a scanned copy of the certificate to the RCL for verification,” said the registrar of WBMC.

Rubbishing the allegations, Dr Sen had said, “I have done my FRCS in 2019 and got PID number 132449 from Glasgow University. 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.”