RG Kar Hospital’s resident doctors have deserted the campus. Those left behind are living in fear

Rape & murder of junior doctor & mob attack that followed have led vast majority of doctors to leave over safety concerns. As SC orders deployment of CISF & CRPF, only few remain on campus.

Locked hostel rooms at the RG Kar campus | Sreyashi Dey | ThePrint

Kolkata: An eerie atmosphere has descended upon the Very New Ladies Hostel at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The rooms are locked and the floors wear a deserted look. Most of the 160 women occupants of the hostel, which stands next to the principal’s office, have left for home out of fear for their safety. Only eight remain.

A female trainee doctor says she has not been able to sleep since 9 August. She, too, was on duty on the night of the gruesome rape and murder of a junior doctor inside a seminar hall of the hospital. In the early hours of 15 August, she witnessed a violent mob vandalising the premises.

“We scraped dirt from the collapsible rails with our hands to secure the gates to save ourselves,” she recalls.

“We dragged a bed from the room to block the gate, took out curtain rods to protect ourselves. We begged the police for help, but our requests fell on deaf ears,” she tells ThePrint, describing the hostel’s abysmal condition.

The Supreme Court has now directed the Centre to deploy the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at RG Kar.

A bed and table were used to secure the gates of the women’s hostel on the night of mob attack | Sreyashi Dey | ThePrint

There are 10 hostels at the campus. There are two for men—Main Boys’ hostel for MBBS students, interns & house staff, and the KB Hostel for Male PGTs. For the women, there is the Very New Ladies Hostel for MBBS students, Ladies Intern Hostel, Ladies common room, Nepal building PGTs hostel, and Ratree Niwas, which was initially meant for the families of patients, but later given to doctors. In addition, there is a dormitory for the undergraduate doctors and two nursing hostels. After the mob attack, most trainee doctors left the campus.

However, the woman doctor says, “If we leave this place and run back home, the purpose of our fight will be defeated. My mother calls very frequently these days. After all, RG Kar is all over the news, which gets them worried. I have had to lie to them that everything is alright.”

Now, a CCTV camera at the entrance of the Very New Ladies Hostel, and another one near the staircase, keep an eye out, while police officers sit inside the mess in preparation for an emergency. But when the mob was ransacking the campus last week, the students were left alone to protect themselves.

Two assistant commissioners of police and one inspector, who were stationed there that night, have now been suspended for alleged negligence. A departmental inquiry has been initiated against them. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (North), and 14 other police personnel, had sustained injuries and were hospitalised.

The entrance to the Very New Ladies Hospital | Sreyashi Dey | ThePrint

“A day after the violence, I went to the trauma centre, and picked up a few blades which I now always keep in my bag. We have very little confidence in the police because we saw them abandon us and run to save themselves first that night,” the trainee doctor tells ThePrint.

 

‘Don’t feel safe at all’

A second female trainee doctor, who has been studying at RG Kar since 2019, points to a bunch of curtain rods placed on every floor for protection.

“Till early 2020, approaching the administration with respect to any problem in the hostels was easy. Now, one needs to write an application, get three different signatures and then the issue is placed before the authorities. The entire procedure is arduous,” she says.

“There has been theft inside the hostel. Patient parties have come right up to our gates. There has never been any security inside the hostel or at the gates. The doors don’t lock. Our safety has always taken a backseat. It took the death of our senior for the authorities to wake up,” she adds.

While the numbness reflects in their eyes, they still have high regards for the institution. “We left our respective states to pursue medical science at RG Kar. It is one of the best in the country. Many don’t get to learn in their final year what I learnt here as an intern. The exposure is excellent because of the varied cases,” the first doctor explains.

The situation isn’t too different for the men on campus. The Main Boys’ Hostel behind the morgue has four police constables stationed at the entrance. The hostel is located in a corner of the campus with two boundary walls with barbed wires covering it from a flyover on one side and a slum settlement on the other.

A male doctor, resident of the hostel, points to a small rickety iron gate that was used to be left open for garbage collection, but has now been temporarily secured by the students with a hospital bed.

He recalls: “On the night of the attack, we saw the police run away and we followed them, not knowing if we would survive that night. We pulled out a hospital bed and placed it against the door because the mob was out on the street and could have easily jumped over and entered the hostel. In fact, we nabbed one miscreant and locked him in the bathroom, took away his phone and handed him over to the police in the morning. We don’t feel safe at all.”

“Patrolling by the police has increased but only because the world has its eyes on RG Kar. Once the noise fades, the police will leave. We will continue to live here, study to become doctors, but at what cost?” remarks another male doctor.

A hospital bed blocks a gate at the men’s hostel | Sreyashi Dey | ThePrint

The Supreme Court order

As the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the RG Kar case Tuesday, the three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud was apprised about the safety concerns of the doctors at RG Kar.

The court was informed that there were approximately 700 resident doctors at the hospital. Following the mob attack, most of the resident doctors have left their places of duty and as a consequence, only about 30-40 female doctors and 60-70 male doctors have remained in the hostels.

“It is essential to create safe conditions for the interns, residents and senior residents to return to their duties so as to enable them to not only pursue their education, but to administer medical care to their patients,” the Chief Justice said.

“This court has been assured that the Central Industrial Security Force/Central Reserve Police Force shall be deputed in sufficient numbers at the RG Kar Medical College, including the hostels where the resident doctors are staying to ensure their safety,” read the court order.

The apex court has also constituted a national task force to address the concerns over doctors’ safety across the country.

The Central Bureau of Investigation Wednesday questioned RG Kar’s former principal, Sandip Ghosh, for the sixth day in a row. A polygraph test may be conducted soon. The Supreme Court has directed the CBI to submit a status report by 22 August. Senior CISF and CRPF officers met with Kolkata Police officers and the hospital authorities at the administrative block with respect to the deployment of the forces at the campus for the safety of the doctors.

(Edited by Mannat Chugh)