Focus - October 2024
RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, named after legendary Radha Gobinda Kar, who as a District Health Officer worked tirelessly to save patients in the alleys of North Kolkata, during the plague epidemic that had gripped Kolkata in early 1899, was sadly caught in the tragic assault and murder of a young junior doctor on duty while she was resting past midnight of 8th & 9th Aug. Overnight, one of the best government hospitals in Kolkata had become a most disliked medical care centre, courtesy the apathy and diabolic attitude of the authorities, from the lowest to the highest levels of West Bengal government.
On the night of 8th past midnight into the early part of 9th Aug, a young post graduate lady doctor after over 30 hours of continuous work had taken a break for resting in the seminar hall of the hospital. She was asleep without the faintest idea that it could be her last. Her peaceful sleep tragically ended in violent death after a comprehensive destruction of her persona, apparently by a group of animals called men, who brutally raped her and then murdered her, to ensure that ‘dead tell no tale’.
In the event, when the authorities learnt about the brutal incident, the family was called to tell that their daughter is sick and they should immediately come to the hospital. But parents having spoken to their daughter only some hours earlier insisted on knowing what happened. After some evasive reply by the Assistant Superintendent, the hospital authorities reportedly told parents that their daughter has committed suicide and the family must come immediately.
This attempt at concealing the truth of having died/killed after physical assault has prima facie exposed the authorities’ attempt at possible cover up. When family arrived, the authorities did not allow them to see the body for 3 hours. What prevented the authorities not to allow the family see their dead daughter!? However, reportedly a video has surfaced which shows a crowd muddying the crime spot. This was on the morning of 9th Aug itself. Reportedly video shows Dr. Debashish Som, a close aide of Principal Sandip Ghosh, his lawyer Shantanu Dey and Principal’s P.A, Incharge of the college police outpost in uniform, besides others, about a dozen of them. Question is why there were so many people inside the crime scene even before blood could dry?! Clearly something fishy had happened to influence the course of investigation. According to a former police officer Pankaj Dutta, all those seen in the video should be taken into custody for custodial interrogation.
On 10th Aug, Kolkata police arrested one Sanjay Roy, a community volunteer worker. According to report in a section of the press, ‘right from the word go, the local police seemed hell-bent on down playing the enormity of the crime. They did not register it as a case of rape-cum-murder, choosing instead to register it as a case of unnatural death. Nor did the principal, or any other senior functionary in the hospital, deemed it fit to lodge even an FIR. Neither did the state government think it proper to transfer the principal of the college cum hospital, until the investigation to the horrendous murder was over. Under public pressure, he was later transferred out but appointed to the same position in another college cum hospital. Only because of the protest from medicos and parents of the victim, who had the stomach and means to fight, did the authorities conduct a proper post-mortem examination. Reportedly, the post-mortem examination indicated that there could be more than one attacker involved in savaging the young lady doctor. The cuts and wounds on her body indicated that she had fiercely resisted her attackers.
Thus, it’s not a surprise that the division bench of Calcutta High Court (CHC) transferred the case to CBI and ordered the state government to suspend the college principal. According to the grapevine the college principle was close to many TMC politicians and he was not touched despite many complaints of high handedness and wrong doing. However it is to be noted that CHC had pointed out that the college Principal tried to underplay the tragic death of a young resident doctor by not only failing to lodge an FIR but also going along with the police plan of turning the rape and murder into a much lighter charge of unnatural death. Thus there appeared to be a planned approach by all concerned, both the political class and the administration, to put the lid over the crime.
These developments have indicated a larger cover-up attempt, as if there were skeletons of wrong doings or wrong goings-on in the hospital. The question being asked is did the young lady doctor, who paid with her life, knew too much about the hanky-panky goings on within the corridors of RG Kar College and Hospital!? There is even a story that the motor bike used by the arrested accused Sanjay Roy is registered in the name of Kolkata Police Commissioner! So also his parents are ministers in TMC government in West Bengal. According to Swapan Das Gupta, one of the reasons for the alleged cover-up of the murder was the involvement of ruling party functionaries in every hospital department, from disposal of bodies and supply of medical equipment’s to allotment of security staff, choice of vendors and even parking contracts etc. And comes Aktar Ali, a former superintendent at RG Kar College. According to him Principal Sandip Ghosh ran a fiefdom. “Apart from supplying alcohol to students, he took cut money for every tender that was floated. He awarded tenders to those he knew. Two Bangladeshis were involved in the racket who smuggled gloves, rubber clothes and other materials to Bangladesh. Students who failed were at the mercy of Ghosh who took cut money from them to ensure that they secure pass marks”, were his serious allegations.
While it is true that there should be no attempt to politicize such heinous crimes against women especially in a teaching hospital cum medical college, the brazen attempt to go slow by the TMC government in Kolkata has exposed the darker side of the West Bengal government managed by Mamata Bannerjee. The resignation of Rajya Sabha M.P. belonging to TMC, a former IAS, Jawhar Sacar has to be seen in this light. He appears to be deeply upset with the happenings in RG Kar College and corruption prevalent in the TMC apparatus, accusing Mamata Bannerjee of doing “too little and quite late” in addressing the rape and murder issue at RGK Medical College. Here it is interesting to note what Sayantan Ghosh, a journalism teacher at Kolkata’s St. Xavier’s College writes, and we quote “Bannerji’s belated intervention, replete with hollow assurances only served to underscore her administration’s cluelessness. Her stunning volte-face advocating for a CBI probe after years of railing against the agency, betrays a stark lack of faith in her own police force. This duplicity raises fundamental questions about her leadership and trustworthiness of her government”, unquote. “The Chief Minister, who wields enormous power as police minister, home minister and health minister, stands exposed as a leader bereft of conviction or competence. Her administration’s failure are systemic, reflecting a deep seated rot that threatens the very fabric of government in West Bengal”, he adds.
Now with the CBI having taken over, how long will it take is anybody’s guess!
Public reaction, especially from the doctors’ fraternity has been widespread and spontaneous. Medicos at the RGKMC has expressed unhappiness at the lack of speed in investigation by CBI. With Supreme Court taking interest in the case, hopefully things should move faster. However the latest is students have ignored the warnings of SC to return to their jobs in hospital, which is in disarray. Talks with the government has not begun. Now they have approached President Murmu and the Prime Minister. So there is a dead lock.
While we are about it, it is pertinent to recollect the heightened awareness on the vulnerability of working women travelling in public transport after the Nirbhaya case in Delhi. It was the case of a physiotherapy student having been brutally assaulted by four men in a moving bus, including a teenager. Three were awarded death sentence, and the teen missed the noose by a whisker, since he was short-of by 4 months to attain 18 years of age. But the truth was, he was the cruelest of all with the lady in question.
Nirbhaya case became a talking point for a long time and the social awareness about bad boys and men, chasing vulnerable girls and women, became increased over a period. But sadly it was short lived. These days every day in most newspapers, there’s a report of some girl/woman being physically assaulted and sometime even killed, slowly became a staple of daily news. There is an emerging culture among boys and men, both young and old, married and unmarried looking for opportunities to force themselves on unsuspecting girls, women and even children as small as 4 years, as it happened in Badlapur School, a suburb of Kalyan outside Mumbai. A cursery perusal of two newspapers of just 4 days had some 14 references of different degree of violence against women. So how could the situation be in whole of India with 100s of newspapers in over 20 languages in different parts of the country reporting wrong doings on the opposite sex, ranging from ‘Tribal girl raped- 2 held’ in Tikamgarb in MP to ‘Locals thrash the accused for sexual assault of 8 year old’ in Kolkata, to ‘Man held for sexual assault & murder of 12 year old boy’, to ‘rape rap on Actor/MLA M.Mukesh” in Kerala. Thus its myriad, an unbelievably innumerable instances. This is sadly an emerging face of Indian men. This dimension of the development taking place in Indian society has to be stopped in the larger interest of nation as a whole. To that end there has to be debate both inside the parliament as well as outside parliament among the members of the civil society. Sensitizing school and college students to this menace is a very important aspect of change that should be thought about. It’s the youth, who should be brought on board, who are the future of the nation.
Come to think of it, it’s been twelve years since the horrific Nirbhaya case that shook the conscience of the nation, yet we are here 12 years later in the city of Kolkata, a city which prided itself as a harbinger of change – what Bengal thinks to-day India will think tomorrow - haunted by the same spectre, same grim reality, ‘women in India are not safe’. The recent brutal rape and murder of a young doctor within the sanctuary of care and healing, a government run RG Kar Medical College, has underscored this sad truth. The victim was not just another number, she was a doctor, a professional dedicated to saving lives. Yet within the walls of a hospital, her life was savagely snuffed out. What a fall for the ‘City of Joy’ and for the state of West Bengal!!
Can this menace be addressed far more seriously than it’s being handled at present by the law enforcing authorities? It’s a question not being answered by all governments, be it state or central, tells Rashme Sehgal. According to her “government agencies are responsible for the sorry state of affairs. Crime is no longer being investigated in a non-partisan manner” while accusing that “state is responsible for the spike in rape and murder cases”. “A decade ago, in 2014, the then Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi had proposed the setting up of 660 Nirbhaya Centers where all medical, legal and police aid would be available to a rape victim under one umbrella centre. This scheme was shot-down by the PMO as being a ‘waste of money’.” Sehgal writes.
So where do we go from here!
The only way to end the heinous crimes against women, we need to recognize, is to honestly ensure institutional accountability, whether it be the police, the CBI or other investigation and judicial bodies, without any political interference. Will this happen!!
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