New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday grilled the West Bengal government for the alleged lapses on the part of police in the “shocking” RG Kar Hospital rape-cum-murder as well as its failure to provide adequate security to “crime scene” that was vandalised by a mob.
A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud made its critical observations regarding the conduct of the police while hearing a suo-motu cognizance case that it registered Sunday, in the aftermath of the violence that disrupted emergency services in the Kolkata hospital on the eve of Independence Day.
A mob had attacked the doctors, who were protesting as part of a nation-wide stir to condemn the brutal rape and murder of a 31-year-old a postgraduate trainee doctor, whose body was found in the hospital’s seminar room on 9 August. The mob not just broke into the hospital, but also threatened and attacked the doctors protesting there.
Taking note of a mail sent Monday by a senior resident doctor to the Inspector General (IG) of Kolkata Police, the bench ordered immediate deployment of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at RG Kar Hospital.
The bench was left shocked when told that around 600 of 700 residents have fled the hospital following the attack on them. It warned the state government against “unleashing its power” on peaceful protestors.
“If conditions return to normal at this hospital and doctors come back, this would have an impact on the rest of the hospitals (across the country),” the bench observed, as it directed the presence of CISF at the hospital. It even questioned the police’s inability to prevent the incident, wondering how they did not take adequate measures, knowing fully well about the nation-wide protests, including the one at RG Kar Hospital.
“West Bengal government could not have been unaware of the fact that when there are those protests, there will always be another segment that will come and disrupt it,” the CJI asked Bengal’s counsel Kapil Sibal, who acknowledged the vandalism was unacceptable and that the state had identified and arrested 37 people in connection with the incident.
“Women doctors were assaulted, the police ran away from the scene, thereafter women doctors are called out by name and threatened with the same fate that has befallen the other,” the CJI said, referring to the mail sent to the IG. “What was the police force doing in anticipation of the potential attack?”
“The mob appears to have systematically attacked the doctors and hospital staff. Doctors have left their duty. It is essential to create safe conditions for doctors to return to duties so as to enable them not only to pursue their own education, but to administer medical care to the patients,” the bench observed in its order that directed a National Task Force (NTF) be set up to make recommendations for improve the security apparatus in hospitals to protect healthcare professionals.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta assured the court that the CISF shall be deputed in sufficient numbers to guard the RG Kar Hospital as well as the hostels attached to it. Though Sibal initially did not object to the proposal of CISF deployment, he, later, submitted that presence of two security forces – state police and CISF – could cause confusion over who would be responsible in case of any untoward incident.
But the bench was firm saying if it wanted doctors across the country to call off their protests, it was so.
With this direction, the bench urged the agitating doctors in RG Kar Hospital as well as in other parts of the country to resume work as soon as possible. Their absence, the judges said, was affecting a large number of marginalised persons, who due to the strike are unable to access medical services.
“We know that in some hospitals patients have to wait for two years to get an appointment. If the doctors remain on strike, these patients would lose their chance to get their treatment,” the bench observed.
It asked the doctors of RG Kar Hospital to write to its registrar, judicial, directly in case of any grievance.
“If the hospital has to be safeguarded for the doctors to resume their duty, who is going to provide security to them at the premises?” the bench asked Sibal, commenting on the apparent failure of the police from protecting the scene of crime.
The court made its remarks after senior advocate Aparajita Singh, appearing for an association of doctors from West Bengal, narrated the incidents that followed the attack by the mob on the night of 14 August.
Singh informed the bench that after causing destruction in the hospital, the mob reached the senior residents’ hostel. According to her briefing, the police stationed at the hospital fled the scene, with many taking shelter inside the changing room of nurses.
“I do not want to be caught between the political battle. I am for the students and doctors practising there,” Singh clarified, as Sibal and Mehta sparred over the allegations. She told the bench that the mob threatened women doctors due to which out of 250 women resident doctors, only 30-40 are left behind, while others have gone home.
“Their parents are not keen to let them continue to live there,” she said, adding only 70 out of 450 resident doctors are left in the hospital for now. Singh then handed over the letter that was written to the IG.
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‘Not an ordinary complaint’
On its perusal, the bench told Sibal that, “it was not an ordinary complaint.”
“It’s not that all 7,000 (people) vandalised, only 80-90 people indulged in violence. Did the police run away from the site?” the CJI asked Sibal.
The senior counsel submitted in anticipation of the protests, 150 policemen were stationed at the hospital. When the gathering swelled to 7,000, the police requisitioned for more personnel. By the time additional force could be called, the vandalism took place, Sibal said.
Mehta intervened to suggest that the violence was premeditated. “We know how much effort goes in to get 500 persons for a well-organised function. To have 7,000 people armed with lathis cannot be without the knowledge of the police force,” the bench said.
The bench said it also “expected West Bengal” shall observe necessary restraint in the face of peaceful protest.
“It shall be ensured that power of the state is not unleashed against persons using legitimate means to express their concerns,” the top court said.
Earlier, the bench asked some tough questions to Sibal regarding the probe in the case that was now with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). It said that it was “deeply concerned” about the fact that the victim’s name had been published all over the media and videos showing her body were played by media houses.
The court directed the central government to ensure all photographs, videos and references to the 31-year-old doctor circulating on the social media are removed forthwith.
Declaration of her identity, the court said, is a violation of the law and several judgments of the top court, disallowing such a disclosure.
It asked Sibal on why the hospital “passed off” the murder as a suicide and why the parents were not allowed see the body when they asked for it.
“There was no FIR until late night,” the bench questioned, shocked to know that the case was registered only after the parents filed a formal complaint with the police. “What was the hospital doing? Why wasn’t a complaint lodged by it?”
It further noted that though the inquest proceedings were done much before the FIR was registered, yet the document did not indicate clearly that the victim died due to murder. Moreover, the body was handed over to the family at 8:30 in the evening, at least three hours after its autopsy ended. A belated FIR was registered more than three hours after the body was given to the family and a formal complaint was lodged by the parents, the court observed.
“What was the principal doing? Why was there inaction on his part to pass it off as a case of suicide?” the judges observed, taking strong exception to his re-appointment soon after he was removed from RG Kar Hospital. “He is appointed as the principal of another college immediately. At least till his conduct is under scrutiny, he should not be appointed as a principal in another college.”
The bench also pondered on how the police failed to protect the crime scene. “A very serious offence has taken place and the crime scene is within the precincts of the hospital. The first thing police have to do is protect the scene of crime. What was the police doing?” it said.
While the bench ordered the CBI to file a status report of its probe, the West Bengal government was directed to answer the questions it raised regarding the alleged inaction of the hospital and the police. Both reports have to be submitted by 22 August.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
If you are a criminal, kindly contact Mr. Kapil Sibal. No matter what your crime is he will ensure you get away with it. Be it murder or rape or even terrorism, Kapilous Sibalous is always itching to fight on your behalf.