Brutal rape and murder of a on-duty junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata.

Groundxero | August 09, 2024

In a horrifying incident, a 31-YEAR-OLD woman junior doctor was found dead at Kolkata’s state-run RG Kar Medical College & Hospital on Friday morning, with her family and hospital colleagues alleging that she was raped and murdered.

The doctor was a second-year postgraduate student in chest medicine at the hospital. She was on call duty for 36-hours in the chest department of the Emergency building. Around 2 am on Friday, she had dinner with her juniors, and went to take some rest in the seminar hall of the building.  Her body was recovered from the seminar hall at around 11.30 am in the morning by the hospital staff.

The medical students and resident doctors at the hospital alleged that the administration and the police tried to pass it off as a case of suicide. The doctors were informed that there were marks of injuries over her body but it was unclear whether it was a case of murder after ragging or rape or if it was a case of suicide. The gruesome murder of their on-duty colleague inside the hospital premises enraged the medical students and doctors, and they protested the administration’s attempt to hide the truth.

The doctor’s father told the media “She was found partially clothed. We suspect she has been murdered and raped. Let the police investigate.”

The resident doctors at the hospital stopped work at every department, apart from emergency duty duty, and demanded proper investigation of the incident. They demanded enquiry and post mortem to be conducted under supervision of judicial magistrate and judicial magistrate should be present at the time of the post mortem; post mortem to be done by the evening under the supervision of senior Autopsy surgeons and in presence of female faculty from Forensic Department.

The report of the incident in the media led to a huge public outcry. Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal visited the hospital for inspection. State Health Secretary NS Nigam also visited the hospital and held a meeting with senior officials. The Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee condoled the death of the doctor and spoke to the family of the victim, assuring them all help and support. Kolkata Police registered a murder case, and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed to probe the incident.

The initial inquest report submitted at the local police station concerned, and prepared in presence of eyewitnesses, states that the female doctor was found in a “half naked condition” with injury marks all over her body. She was bleeding from both eyes, mouth and vagina.

There was no CCTV camera in the seminar hall where the doctor’s body was recovered. “Doctors and nurses used to change clothes at that seminar hall due to which the CCTV is not there,” said a hospital employee to the media.

Medical students and opposition parties protested outside the hospital, demanding proper action in the incident. Students of RG Kar Medical College also held a candle march, seeking fair investigation.

Amid mounting pressure, the hospital administration has set up two separate inquiry panels. Resident doctors are demanding an external inquiry panel headed by a judicial magistrate to look into the death.  

The resident doctors and others demanded they be shown the post mortem report before taking away the body of the doctor for cremation. There are report that political pressure was exerted on the family to sign on papers and they were told that they will get the post mortem report after one week. The dead body of the doctor was cremated in presence of a large police force.

Meanwhile, student organisations and opposition parties have called protest programs on Saturday.