Kolkata: A violent mob stormed RG Kar Hospital in Kolkata around 12.30 am on 15 August, vandalising the medical facility. This occurred while rallies were being held across the state demanding justice for the trainee doctor who was brutally raped and murdered at the hospital. The mob broke through barricades, damaged gates, and overturned a Kolkata Police post and several vehicles.
A senior officer who received an SOS, told ThePrint, when he entered the emergency building which was being ransacked by miscreants, he was “stunned”.
“I have been in this force for 28 years, but I have not seen anything like this. The mob was tearing wires to snap the electricity with their bare hands, they had rods and swords and came charging towards the police. There were patients undergoing treatment and the force saved them on priority. The police cannot carry lathis inside a hospital where students are present. The force picked up walking sticks, banner poles to counter the crowd,” he said to ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
The iron gates inside the emergency building have been uprooted, lights and fans shattered, medical equipment and medicines scattered across the floor amid shards of glass and beds and IV drips overturned. Not a single room has been spared.
“This emergency building was providing service to patients. The senior doctors ensured that none were turned back, but this emergency room stands damaged, no services can be provided here. So, there will be no medical services here. Our protests will get louder,” said Dr Sourav Roy, a resident doctor at RG Kar, to ThePrint after the mob attack.
To restore order, Kolkata Police fired tear gas shells and detained individuals outside RG Kar Hospital. Additional forces, initially assigned to Red Road for the Independence Day programme, were diverted to North Kolkata as the situation remained tense around the hospital.
Several police personnel sustained minor injuries during the attack on RG Kar.
Addressing the media at RG Kar at around 2 am, Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal said, “The motivated media campaign which was being run was extremely sad, and sad for the city. It has put Kolkata Police in a very poor light. We are always with the people of Calcutta, we will always be with the people of Calcutta, but unfortunately this incident would not have happened if this kind of malicious campaign was not being run by the media. I am telling you from the core of my heart and every member of my team, that we have never tried to save [the guilty]. If the CBI can prove that me or any of my men have tried to save [the guilty], we’ll take responsibility.”
#WATCH | Visuals from RG Kar Medical College and Hospital where a mob enters the campus, vandalised protesting site, vehicles and public property
A protest was being held by the doctors in the campus of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital against the rape-murder of the trainee… pic.twitter.com/yY0bwMj9Zj
— ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2024
Also Read: Kolkata doctor’s postmortem report hints at ‘gangrape’, say parents. HC transfers probe to CBI
Probe with CBI
48 hours ago, the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice bench had transferred the investigation of the gruesome rape and murder of a trainee doctor inside RG Kar Hospital to the CBI. The Chief Justice of Calcutta HC came down heavily on the Kolkata Police and Mamata Banerjee government while hearing a bunch of petitions that demanded an independent probe.
“The case in hand, is a peculiar case and the facts and circumstances warrant appropriate orders without further loss of time. We are convinced to say so because even after a lapse of five days there appears to be no significant progress in the investigation, which ought to have happened by now and by further loss of time, we would be well-justified in accepting the plea raised by the writ petitioners, more particularly, the parents of the victim that there is every possibility that the evidence will be destroyed and the witnesses will be influenced,” stated the HC order accessed by ThePrint.
Earlier Wednesday evening Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while addressing the media, had said, “I must have spoken to the police around 100 times. Minute-to-minute details were shared. I didn’t sleep the entire night. I spoke to the CP till 2 am. Police escorted the body till the time it was cremated. They stayed up the entire night to do the work — including combing through CCTV footage, calling the Judicial Magistrate, and engaging in videography [of the process]. The next day, a DNA test and sample collection were also done.”
The CM had assured justice to the family last week and even said the state had no problem if the family wanted a CBI investigation. “The police had already questioned 34 people in the case, and they had more people on the list who would be questioned in the next four to five days. But they weren’t given a chance to do so. All said and done, we have no issue that the HC handed over the case to CBI. I would have had to hand over the case to the CBI only if the police couldn’t crack it,” she added.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)