Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 16: The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday took the streets to lead a rally demanding death penalty for the accused in the rape and murder of the 31-year old trainee postgraduate doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital last week which triggered massive protests across medical colleges in West Bengal and across the country.
At the rally, Ms Banerjee was seen flanked by her women MPs, who raised “we want death penalty” slogans. “I salute the protest by the public. They did the right thing,” the chief minister said, blaming the BJP and CPM for the hospital vandalism. She had earlier given a Sunday ultimatum to the CBI to complete the probe and hang the culprits.
Ms Banerjee, speaking on the Wednesday night vandalism, has claimed fake videos made using AI (artificial intelligence) are being circulated on social media. She also claimed “outsiders” were part of the mob that vandalised the hospital.
The Calcutta High Court on Friday flagged the lack of preventive measures to curb the vandalism in the hospital in Kolkata on the night of August 14. “If 7000 people are to gather, it hard to believe the State police did not know. So many people can’t come walking. This is an absolute failure of State machinery,” said the Bench.
The police on Friday said it has so far arrested 25 people in connection with the vandalism and violence at the hospital. Those arrested were remanded to police custody by a city court till August 22, officials said.
The emergency ward, nursing station, medicine store and parts of the outpatient department of the hospital were vandalised by some miscreants on Thursday night amid midnight protests by women condemning the rape and murder of the trainee doctor.
The investigation into the rape and murder case has become wider with the parents of the deceased doctor suspecting involvement of some of her colleagues in the hospital to be involved in the crime. The parents have told the CBI that a few interns and physicians of the same medical establishment were involved in the crime, an officer said on Friday.
The parents also provided the Central agency, which is conducting the probe into the case on an order of the Calcutta High Court, with names of those who they suspect to be associated with their daughter’s killing in the State-run hospital.
“The parents told us that they suspect the involvement of multiple persons behind the sexual assault and murder of their daughter. They have given us names of a few interns and doctors working with their daughter at the RG Kar Hospital,” the CBI officer said. The Central agency officer said they were giving priority to questioning the doctors and officers of the Kolkata Police who were part of the investigation.
“We have zeroed in on at least 30 names whom we will be calling for questioning. We have already started questioning them,” he said. The CBI on Friday summoned one house staff, two post-graduate trainees (PGTs) who were on duty with the doctor on that night when she was murdered. CBI sleuths already questioned the officer-in-charge of the Tala Police Station on Thursday night. The CBI also took the arrested man Sanjoy Roy on Friday to the Hospital for a reconstruction of the crime scene, the source said.
The Calcutta High Court had earlier in the day had asked for photographic proof of the safe condition of the seminar room at the hospital, in which the doctor’s body was found. There were claims the hall was vandalized on Wednesday night, which the police have denied.
Addressing a press conference, Kolkata Police chief Vineet Goyal admitted that during the midnight protest on Wednesday, they did not expect violence outside RG Kar hospital and were caught off-guard when an official was injured.
BJP women workers faced off with the police this morning during a protest outside the RG Kar hospital. Visuals showed state BJP leaders like Rupa Ganguly being detained. The Bengal BJP women’s wing will also hold a candlelight vigil from Hazra crossing to Ms Banerjee’s Kalighat residence in south Kolkata.
The CPM too had announced a state-wide ‘Dhikkar Diwas’ demanding the resignation of the state Health Minister and Home Minister. Both portfolios are held by Ms Banerjee. They have also been demanding the arrest of former RG Kar hospital head Sandeep Ghosh. SUCI, another Leftist organisation, had called a 12-hour general strike.
The Indian Medical Association has announced the withdrawal of out-patient services and elective surgeries on Saturday while protests continue at premier medical colleges across the country.
During the Wednesday night vandalism, almost all CCTV cameras were broken and the mob also vandalised a portion of the seminar hall where the doctor was raped and murdered, a senior health official said. The official said restoration work may take a couple of weeks.
The police have arrested 25 people so far over the hospital vandalism, informed West Bengal Additional Commissioner of Police Murlidhar Sharma on Friday evening. “During interrogation, most of them said they came here on their own, but we are verifying if there is any conspiracy,” he said.
About Wednesday’s vandalism, The Kolkata Police commissioner said 15 policemen were injured. Mr Goyal when asked why it couldn’t be prevented said, “It was a leaderless crowd, anticipating and assessing how many people would gather in one place was difficult. We had to spread ourselves thin. There were many women there and we had to keep their safety in mind; some of the people who have been arrested include women. So we had to be restrained in our response. We could not be using force left, right and centre, just like that. There was sufficient deployment and officers were there, trying to keep the crowd in check.”
“Despite that, the barricade was breached and people got into the hospital and vandalised the place. We have 15 people who were injured badly,” the police commissioner added. Mr Goyal, however, strongly defended the police’s investigation into the rape and murder and accused “so-called experts” of creating narratives.
“Far too many rumours are floating around, which have no basis. And, based on these, so-called experts are trying to say that Kolkata Police has not done this, or it was a gang-rape by so many people. Evidence has to be scientific in nature. The case is now with the CBI, let’s trust the agency investigating the case. They will also come up with evidence. Whatever we had to do in whatever little time we had was done,” he said.
Mr Goyal said the CBI would find out if there was any destruction of evidence by the Kolkata Police and the force would be liable for legal action if there was anything that was done wrong. “Why are people so impatient? Have faith in the new investigating agency. Why is this rumour-mongering going on… Our officers are cooperating with the agency. We have tried to be as transparent as possible,” he stressed.
Earlier on Friday, the Calcutta High Court rapped the Bengal government and the police and said that a mob going on the rampage in the hospital was an “absolute failure of state machinery.” “Normally police has an intelligence wing… similar things happened on Hanuman Jayanti. If 7,000 are to gather, it is hard to believe police did not know… This is an absolute failure of state machinery… So they (the police) couldn’t protect their own men? A sorry state of affairs. How will doctors there work fearlessly?” the bench fumed.