The fresh focus on the role of police following today’s hearing of the Kolkata hospital rape-murder case in Supreme Court has escalated the BJP demand for the dismissal of the city’s police chief Vineet Goyal. Chief Minster Mamata Banerjee has played for time. The police chief, she said, cannot step down immediately in view of the coming Durga Puja, which calls for special stress on law and order. 

“Kolkata Police Commissioner has come to me several times last week and offered to resign,” Ms Banerjee said.  “We have pujo coming up. Someone who is aware of law and order has to be there. If you have patience for a few days, will it be a Mahabharat (big deal)?” she added.

Following the arrest of Sandip Ghose, the former Principal of RG Kar Medical College, the next big demand of the protesters has been the resignation of the police chief. The Opposition parties have thrown their weight behind it. 

The role of the police in the investigation of the young doctor’s rape-murder has raised multiple questions. The woman’s parents have claimed they cremated their daughter’s body under pressure from the police and alleged that a police officer had offered them money to bury the incident. 

There have been complaints about videography and questions why the body’s postmortem was done at RG Kar hospital, which created a conflict of interest of sorts.

The 14-hour delay in filing of the First Information Report has been flagged multiple times, including by the judges of the Supreme Court.

Today, the top court said a key document connected to the postmortem appeared to be missing. 

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud questioned where a certain challan was, that showed what articles of clothing and personal use was submitted for forensic examination. Without that challan, a postmortem cannot be carried out either, he said.

“See the third column on the top, the constable (who brought the body) is supposed to carry this (form). It has been struck off. So there is no reference of this challan when the dead body is sent for examination. You need to explain. If this document is missing, then something is amiss,” said Justice JB Pardiwala, who was part of the three-judge bench.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was representing the state, could not immediately locate it and has sought more time.  

The Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI has said “who collected the samples” for forensics has emerged as a crucial question.

Kolkata:

Family members of a doctor, who was allegedly raped and murdered last month, joined the protesting medics at RG Kar hospital on Wednesday and accused the Kolkata Police of attempting to suppress the case by hurriedly cremating the body of the doctor.

Participating in the protests at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, where the body of their daughter was recovered on August 9, the parents demanded justice and accused a senior police officer of trying to bribe them after the incident came to light.

“The police, from the very beginning, tried to hush up the case. We were not allowed to see the body and had to wait at the police station while the body was taken for post-mortem examinations. Later, when the body was handed over to us, a senior police official offered us money, which we immediately declined,” the father of the deceased doctor said.

The Calcutta High Court ordered the handover of the case to the CBI in the second week of August.

The parents of the postgraduate trainee stated that they joined the protest to support the junior doctors fighting for justice for their daughter.

Since August 10, protests have erupted across the state, with people from various sectors demanding justice for the victim.

On Monday, the CBI arrested the former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Dr Sandip Ghosh, in connection with alleged financial misconduct at the establishment.

On Tuesday, the West Bengal Assembly unanimously passed a state anti-rape bill seeking capital punishment for rape convicts if their actions result in the victim’s death or leave her in a vegetative state, and a life sentence without parole for other perpetrators.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kolkata:

Kolkata Police has extended prohibitory orders near the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital for an additional week, until August 31.

The orders, which were first imposed on August 18, restrict meetings and gatherings of more than five people in the designated area.

Kolkata Police commissioner Vineet Goyal on Saturday issued a statement confirming the extension of Section 163 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) around the hospital. The prohibitory orders cover the area from Belgachia Road-J K Mitra crossing to some parts of Shyambazar five point crossing belt in North Kolkata.

The extension is intended to prevent disturbances and maintain peace and order in the area. The decision follows ongoing unrest related to the recent rape-murder of a woman doctor at the hospital, which has led to significant agitation.

The order stipulates that any person violating these prohibitions will be subject to penalties under Section 223 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Kolkata Police have put out photographs of the mob that went on the rampage at RG Kar Memorial College and Hospital last night during the massive protest against the rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor at the campus last week. Sharing photos on Facebook with the faces of the rioters circled, the city police have sought information from the public that can help identify the individuals.

Last night, when women across West Bengal and in several other cities of the country were on a ‘reclaim the night’ protest over the chilling rape-murder incident, a mob damaged public property, vandalised vehicles and stormed the hospital building.

Visuals of the rioters damaging property inside have gone viral. Police had to use teargas shells to bring the situation under control. Several cops were injured in the clash.

Amid claims that the rioters had left the crime scene — a seminar hall on the fourth floor — compromised, Kolkata Police have said the crime scene was not touched and warned social media users against spreading rumours.

The mob attack has, meanwhile, intensified the political row over the heinous crime on the premises of the government-run hospital.

Leader of the Opposition, BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, has alleged that the rioters were sent by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to disrupt the apolitical protest rally near the hospital.

“Mamata Banerjee has sent her TMC goons to the apolitical Protest Rally near RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. She thinks that she is the most shrewd person in the whole world and people won’t be able to figure out the cunning plan that her goons appearing as protesters would mix with the crowd and carry out vandalism inside the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

“They were given safe passage by the Police, who either ran away or looked the other way so that these lumpens would enter the hospital premises and destroy areas containing crucial evidence so that it doesn’t get picked up by the CBI,” the BJP leader said.

Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress general secretary, said the vandalism at the hospital “exceeded all acceptable limits”. Mr Banerjee said he had spoken to Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal and urged him to ensure that every individual responsible for the violence is identified and held accountable within next 24 hours, “regardless of their political affiliations”. “The demands of the protesting doctors are fair and justified. This is the minimum they should expect from the government. Their safety and security must be prioritised,” Mr Banerjee said in a post on X.

The doctor’s rape-murder case is now being probed by the CBI after the Calcutta High Court noted that the city police’s probe has made no significant progress and that the victim’s parents fear that evidence may be destroyed unless an independent agency carries out a court-monitored probe.

Kolkata:

After a violent mob vandalised vehicles and the building of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal lashed out at the media, alleging that what happened was the result of ‘wrong and malicious media campaign’.

Addressing media, Mr Goyal said, “My DCP, who was protecting the boys, is unconscious and what has happened here is because of the wrong, malicious media campaign, which has been going as far as Kolkata police are concerned. What Kolkata Police not done?”

This came after a mob entered the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital campus, damaging the protesting site and public property, forcing security officials to disperse the mob.

Mr Goyal further stated that the Kolkata police have done everything under his command and have also arrested the main accused in the case.

“In this case, they have done everything and I am saying everything under my command. My men have worked day and night to collect evidence. They have collected the best evidence. The main accused have been arrested,” he said.

He further said that he was extremely angry about the rumours spread on this issue and added that due to the malicious media campaign, the people have lost trust in Kolkata Police.

“We have tried to satisfy the family but the rumours are being floated that some Mahapatra is being connected with a political Mahapatra. He is an intern who comes from a small place. His father is a primary school teacher and doesn’t have any kind of background. People are spreading these rumours and some of them are his friends, these doctors. Pathetic… I am extremely angry. We have not done anything wrong… Because of this malicious media campaign, people have lost trust in Kolkata Police. We never said there is only one person; we are waiting for scientific evidence as we don’t have anything to support,” he said.

Mr Goyal also mentioned that it’s not in his conscience to arrest someone based on rumours and said that they haven’t tried to save anyone related to this matter.

“I can’t just some kind of rumour can’t arrest an intern; it’s against my conscience… As far as I am concerned, my team is concerned we have done what is right. Now the case is already gone… CBI will be investigating it… We have been transparent with everyone… We wanted the students to form a seven-member committee on Sunday to share everything with them but they haven’t come up with the committee till today. It’s the most unfortunate thing–the motivated media campaign that was being run has portrayed the Kolkata Police in a very bad light. We are always with the people of Kolkata, but unfortunately, this kind of incident wouldn’t have happened if this kind of malicious campaign wasn’t run by the media…We have not tried to save anyone,” he said.

The mob also vandalised a car belonging to the Kolkata Police. Speaking to ANI, the driver of the car that was vandalised, Badyu Jamaan, said, “The crowd came suddenly and damaged the car. A brick hit me on my back when I was standing by the side of my car.”

Meanwhile, speaking to the media about the rape-murder incident, CPI (M) General Secretary D Raja said, “What happened in Kolkata was a heinous crime and such crimes should not take place anywhere in the country. We are celebrating 78 years of Independence. What is the meaning of independence if we cannot provide security and protection to our own women and children? If this happens to a lady doctor in a city like Kolkata, think of the condition of our working women in the agricultural field in tribal areas. What is happening? This is a very serious issue. What the Bengal government has done so far is not satisfactory. The Union government should take note and provide adequate security to our women and children.”

On August 9, a post-graduate trainee doctor was found dead in the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. The victim’s family has alleged that she was raped and murdered. This incident has triggered a nationwide protest by doctors and medical fraternities.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

OPD services in government hospitals of several states across the country remained affected on Tuesday as the resident doctors’ strike over the alleged rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee in Kolkata entered its second day, even as the CBI took over the investigation in the case.

The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA), which called for a nationwide indefinite strike over the incident, on Tuesday night said it was calling off its strike as Union Health Minister J P Nadda has accepted their demands.

However, the medics at the central government-run AIIMS, the Indira Gandhi Hospital and other resident doctors’ associations, including the Federation of All India Medical Associations (FAIMA), said their stir would continue until a central law to curb attacks on medical personnel is implemented.

A delegation of FORDA met with Mr Nadda at his residence in New Delhi on Tuesday night.

FORDA said the decision to end the strike will be effective from Wednesday morning.

“A key outcome of the meeting was the health minister’s agreement to form a committee with FORDA’s involvement to work on the Central Protection Act. The ministry has assured that work on this will begin within the next 15 days,” the resident doctors’ body said in a statement.

In West Bengal, the epicentre of the protest, a widespread agitation by junior doctors crippled state healthcare services, with the functioning of even emergency and outdoor departments coming to a halt in most government hospitals.

Long queues of patients were seen at out-patient departments (OPDs) of all government hospitals since Tuesday morning as senior doctors were substituting their junior counterparts to address the rush.

In the national capital, elective services in government hospitals remained shut on Tuesday due to the ongoing strike.

On Tuesday, resident doctors in Maharashtra joined the indefinite strike. While all elective services in hospitals across the state have been halted, emergency services will continue uninterrupted, Maharashtra State Association of Residential Doctors (Central-MARD) president Dr Pratik Debaje told PTI.

“From 9 am, we stopped work at all OPDs (out-patient departments), and elective services have been stopped. Now, only emergency services are operational across the state,” Dr Debaje said.

Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered the transfer of probe into the case from the Kolkata Police to the CBI.

While transferring the investigation to the CBI, a division bench presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam also urged agitating doctors to call off their cease-work, maintaining that there is a “pious obligation” on their part to treat patients who come to government hospitals.

After the high court’s direction, the CBI took over the investigation and a team of the central agency sleuths from Delhi, along with forensic scientists and medical experts, will visit Kolkata on Wednesday, officials said.

The direction was passed in the wake of a petition moved by the victim’s parents praying for a court-monitored probe and multiple other PILs seeking probe transfer to the CBI.

The interim order came five days after the gruesome incident that took place at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

The body of the postgraduate trainee with severe injury marks all over was found inside the seminar hall of the state-run hospital’s chest department on Friday morning. The preliminary autopsy report suggested she was subjected to violent sexual assault.

Despite the Kolkata Police arresting a civic volunteer named Sanjay Roy in this connection on Saturday, the move failed to silence the clamour of allegations of a botched up investigation and evidence tampering which have now snowballed into an outrage of junior doctors spreading across medical campuses of the state and beyond.

In Uttar Pradesh, a doctors’ association has written to Union Health Minister J P Nadda, pressing for improved security measures at medical institutions, even as medicos continued protests in the state over the incident.

The protests are being held for the second day in a row at different medical colleges in various cities of the state including Greater Noida, Varanasi, Kanpur, Jhansi, Agra, Gorakhpur besides state capital Lucknow.

However, emergency services continued to function at the medical colleges participating in the protests, a senior office-bearer of the state Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) told PTI.

In Himachal Pradesh’s capital Shimla, patients visiting the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital faced inconvenience due to a strike by resident doctors.

Several people, especially the elderly who had come from distant places, had to return from the premier state-run hospital without treatment.

“We have closed the OPDs to protest against the alleged rape and murder of a female doctor in Kolkata and demand justice for the victim,” S Sharma, a resident doctor at the IGMC hospital, said.

Doctors and students of Agartala Government Medical College staged a demonstration, demanding exemplary punishment for the guilty in the case.

In Jharkhand’s Ranchi, junior doctors at state-run Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences started ‘pen-down’ agitation by boycotting OPD services and elective surgeries. However, they continued to attend emergency services at the premier hospital.

In Rajasthan, medical services at government facilities in Jaipur, including the largest state-run Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital, were affected as resident doctors went on a strike in protest against the Kolkata incident.

On Monday evening, the Jaipur Association of Resident Doctors (JARD) announced immediate suspension of non-essential services.

Meanwhile, the FORDA said it will continue its strike for a law to ensure the safety of healthcare workers.

In a post on X, the resident doctors’ body wrote, “No assurance on the Central Healthcare Protection Act–no call off– our demands remain incomplete.” “We will continue the strike until they are fully accepted,” it added.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) held a meeting with Union Health Minister J P Nadda to raise key issues affecting the medical community and gave him a memorandum of demands, which included declaration of hospitals as safe zones, introduction of a central law against violence, and security stipulations for medical college recognition.

According to Dr R V Asokan, National President of the IMA, Nadda agreed to consider the first two demands and accepted the demand for security stipulations for medical colleges.

The IMA’s call for improved working conditions and accommodation for resident doctors was also met with a favourable response from the minister, a statement said.

Meanwhile, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has issued an advisory for all medical colleges and institutions, urging them to develop a policy for a safe work environment within the college and hospital campuses for all the staff members, including faculty, students and resident doctors. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The rape and murder of a doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College has shaken the nation, and the Bengal government and police are under immense pressure to solve the case at its earliest. City Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal said that the investigation is still underway, and questions about whether more people were involved in the heinous crime can be only after the probe is completed.

Mr Goyal said that one accused, Sanjoy Roy, has been arrested and they are looking at other people who have any connection to the incident. “Everyone has been called and those who haven’t will be. We have also started a helpline number, doctors can give us information anonymously if they suspect anyone. We are also in touch with the family. We will share the progress of information,” he said.

“We are sure that if more people are involved, we will be able to arrest them in the next four to five days. Despite that, if the family is not satisfied, what Madam said will happen,” the Kolkata cop added.

The body of the 32-year-old woman was found in the seminar hall of the government-run hospital in the West Bengal capital on Thursday night. The initial autopsy report stated that the victim was bleeding from her eyes, mouth, and private parts. There were also injuries on her left leg, neck, right hand, ring finger, and lips.

Sanjoy Roy, the main accused in the case, was not a hospital employee but was frequently seen in buildings on the campus. Roy worked as a civic volunteer with the Kolkata Police. Civic volunteers are contractual staff recruited to assist cops in various kinds of work, including traffic management and disaster response. Paid around Rs 12,000 a month, these volunteers do not enjoy the facilities available to regular police personnel.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also assured that the Kolkata Police will complete the investigation by next Sunday. She said that if they are unable to do so, the probe will be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Also read: Kolkata Doctor’s Rape-Murder Accused Posed As Cop, Said “Hang Me” On Arrest

‘Remember What Happened In RG Kar?’ Bengal Doctor Gets Rape-Murder Threat

Doctors Across India To Go On Indefinite Strike Over Kolkata Murder