Kolkata: The gruesome rape of a 31-year-old trainee doctor, whose body was found half-naked and bleeding from the eyes, mouth and private parts in Kolkata’s RG Kar hospital, has sent shockwaves across the country and triggered protests across hospitals in West Bengal.
The inquest, conducted on camera by a judicial magistrate, revealed how the doctor, a second-year postgraduate medical student, was raped and murdered in the wee hours of Friday while she was on duty.
According to the three-page inquest report, accessed by ThePrint, the doctor was found half-naked on a blue mattress, with her jeans and underwear lying on her left.
“I found a hairclip near her private part and a broken spectacle near her body,” read the report.
It also mentioned that the doctor was bleeding from both eyes, her mouth, and private parts and had injury marks on her lips, belly, left leg, face, and nails on her right hand.
The inquest was conducted just hours after the body was found in the seminar hall in the emergency building of the hospital’s chest department.
On Saturday morning, a Kolkata police Special Investigating Team (SIT) arrested a suspect from the RG Kar hospital premises.
On the other hand, protesters clashed with police, after which, the West Bengal government deployed additional police forces at RG Kar hospital to maintain law and order.
IPS Murli Dhar, Additional Commissioner of Police, confirmed that the police are investigating the case under sections 103 (1) (murder) and 64 (rape) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS, 2003).
Kolkata Commissioner of Police Vineet Kumar Goyal, addressing the media at the police headquarters, said that the preliminary postmortem of the body have traced signs of “sexual assault”.
A court of an additional chief judicial magistrate in the city, on Saturday, sent the person arrested in the case, Sanjoy Roy, to 14 days in police custody. No lawyer represented the accused on account of the heinous nature of the crime.
While reports claimed Roy is a civic volunteer in the Kolkata police, Goyal remained tight-lipped despite being asked several times to confirm the identity of the accused.
“The only identity he has is that he is a criminal of the highest order,” the Kolkata police chief said, replying to media queries.
Sources in the Kolkata Police investigating the case told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity that CCTV footage from the hospital premises showed the suspect entering the seminar hall and exiting half an hour later, leading to his arrest.
A piece of a broken Bluetooth-enabled headphone wire seized by the police also led them to Sanjoy Roy. The police arrested Roy after he gave inconsistent statements about his visit to the floor where the crime occurred.
“The investigation is in the primary stage. The accused has not accepted his crime, and we are collecting more evidence,” Goyal said.
This incident has shaken Kolkata and pushed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to say she would welcome a CBI probe if the family isn’t happy with the police investigation.
The CM has also shown solidarity with the protesting doctors. Speaking to the ABP Ananda news channel, she said, “I have ordered the police to take the case to a fast-track court and seek a death penalty against the culprit. If the family is not satisfied with the investigation conducted by the police, they are welcome to approach CBI, we have no problem.”
The brutal rape-murder at RG Kar Hospital and Medical College — one of the state’s most renowned health facilities and among the top 100 medical colleges in India — has raised serious questions on the safety and security of students at medical establishments and women at large in the city.
The government-run hospital, which witnesses heavy footfall not only from the city but also from other districts and states, was brought to a standstill as junior doctors and nurses joined protests seeking justice for their colleague who met a tragic end.
‘They killed my only child’
The doctor’s parents, who rushed to the hospital to find their only child brutally murdered on duty, broke down outside the hospital.
The medical college administration had informed them that their daughter had “committed suicide” — a claim they refuted from the beginning after seeing the state of their daughter.
“My child has been murdered. They killed my only child. She worked very hard to become a doctor to serve the people, and look at what happened to her,” said the inconsolable mother, who witnessed her child’s inquest.
The father told the media that the family has not thought about a CBI probe and urged political parties not to politicise the tragic death of their child.
“We have faith in the Chief Minister, we want exemplary punishment for the accused,” said the father.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has spoken to the aggrieved parents over the phone, assuring them that the government would bring the guilty to book. She has also instructed the police to conduct a thorough and speedy investigation.
The doctor’s batchmates claimed that she was on night duty Friday, watched Niraj Chopra’s Olympic silver win, ordered food online and had dinner with her friends before going to work, only to be found dead early Friday morning.
This incident has sparked a political furore in the state, with the Opposition raising questions about the safety and security of women and the gruesome manner in which the young doctor was raped and murdered inside the hospital.
Leader of Opposition in the Bengal state assembly, Suvendu Adhikary, Saturday urged the parents of the deceased doctor to move the High Court and seek a CBI probe.
“A bright doctor was found half-naked, murdered in this hospital. We demand a CBI probe. The family should demand a postmortem in a central hospital. Law and order is in shambles in this state,” said BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul.
The police, on Saturday, blocked a delegation led by Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar from visiting the doctor’s family near Kolkata.
The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has also demanded a thorough probe into the incident and sought justice for the family while responding to the BJP’s charges.
“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has issued a statement, and the Kolkata Police will ensure the perpetrator gets stern punishment,” said TMC leader Kunal Ghosh.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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