Mob Violence Thwarts Rape/Murder Protest

“Multiple fractures, pelvic injuries show this was not the work of one man, this was gangrape”- Dr Raja Dhar

SB Veda <CALUTTA>

In a protest called “Reclaim the Night,” on the eve of India’s independence, the efforts of protestors who gathered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in the wake of the heinous rape/murder of a trainee physician on the premises of the institution, were brutally thwarted. In attempting to cry out for justice for the victims of violence against women and call for greater safety for women at night, the peaceful mainly female activists  were met by 5,000-7,000 strong armed mob, which assaulted them.

The riotous swam allegedly attacked demonstrators, including doctors and damaged police cars. However, only twelve persons were detained on Thursday for vandalism – that too for vandalism and not assault.

Clearly a planned ambush upon the protesters, the police failed to protect the non-violent citizens who voiced their outrage, claiming ignorance.

The protests were organised after a 31-year-old junior doctor was found dead at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on the morning of August 9th. The doctor, a postgraduate student, was found in the seminar hall at the hospital.

Some believe that the victim had gone there for a brief respite from her long shift. Others say she must have been apprehended and taken there as the hall is locked by the nurse superintendent who keeps the key in their custody. This would suggest collusion in the crime with hospital officials.

An autopsy has confirmed sexual assault, and in a petition to the court, the victim’s parents have said that they suspected their daughter was gang-raped, according to Indian broadcaster NDTV.

Further details released post-autopsy lend strong credence to this claim, indicating  multiple penetrations and injuries to several parts of the body. The autopsy also found 150 mg of semen in the victim’s body, which would indicate that there was more than one perpetrator in the rape.

When the victim’s father was finally allowed to see the body, albeit after a three hour delay, he showed a picture to a relative who described the gruesome state of the victim: “She had no clothes on her body. Her legs were 90 degrees apart…one on one side of the bed and other on the side of the bed…the legs cannot be torn apart like this unless the pelvic girdle breaks, which means she was torn apart. Her specs were broken, and there were shards of glass in her eyes. She was choked to death. I am not making this up. This has been proven in the post-mortem too.”

NDTV Journalist quoted a doctor on the microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) in which she wrote: “Multiple fractures, pelvic injuries show this was not the work of one man, this was gangrape”- Dr Raja Dhar on #Kolkata #RGKarHospital rape & murder. This means the other rapists/Killers are still out there.”

In his Independence Day address from the Red Fort in Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the issue: “There is public outrage over atrocities against our mothers and sisters. I feel this outrage. The country, the society, our state governments need to take this seriously. Crimes against women must be probed as soon as possible, those involved in monstrous acts must face strict punishment at the earliest, this is necessary to create faith in society,” he said.

The incident has stoked political tensions in the state, with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing the governing Trinamool Congress Party (TMC) of orchestrating the attack.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses violence against women in Independence Day Speech at the Red Fort in Delhi

For its part, the TMC has refuted the allegation and has blamed “political outsiders” for stoking the violence. However, the High Court of Judicature at Calcutta noted that the state is responsible for the public security apparatus – and its failure is the failure of the state.

Indeed, the High Court specifically criticised the police for failing to implement adequate security measures to safeguard those who had come out in support of the safety of women.

As reported in Live Law, recognizing that the occurrence of such large-scale violence indicated serious intelligence failures or complicity by police authorities, a division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya orally exclaimed:

“Normally the police always have an intelligence wing. Similar things happened on Hanuman Jayanti. If 7,000 people were to gather, it would be hard to believe that the state police did not know. You pass S.144 CrPC orders for any reason, but when so much commotion is going on, you should have cordoned off the entire area. This is an absolute failure of state machinery.“

In its order, the High Court observed that although the place of occurrence of the crime was saved from the attack, it would be imperative to provide safety to the doctors and nurses working in the hospital to ensure that they were able to carry out their duties with a sense of security.

The High Court transferred the investigation into the gruesome incident to the CBI, upon noting that the state police had not been proactive in the investigation of the incident and the state administration was not “with the victim or her parents.”

A division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya were hearing multiple pleas, including one by the parents of the victim seeking transfer of investigation to an independent agency. In expressing concerns over the progress of the investigation under the state police.

After a preliminary investigation, the Kolkata Police had arrested a ‘civic volunteer’ who worked with the local police force to help direct line-ups for hospital services. This arrest has been termed as a cover-up, with the counsel claiming that the state police’s investigation had been faulty and they were trying to make a scapegoat out of the accused in an attempt to cover up the real facts.

There are indications, too, that the crime scene was tampered with. News 18 reported that the protesting doctors sought accountability for potential evidence loss due to changes in the crime scene.

“We have come across reports of sudden civil reconstruction works in and around the scene of crime at the same institution. We are extremely apprehensive about the motive behind such an effort and we think that this might hamper the investigation by tampering with important evidence,” the report cited a letter signed by Dr Koushik Chaki and Dr Sanjoy Holme Chowdhury.

In the High Court, the parents of the deceased were represented by Senior Advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, who submitted that they initially received a phone call claiming that she had fallen sick and upon reaching the college were told that she had committed suicide but were not allowed to see her body for up to three hours while waiting there.

The court expressed concern over the fact that the case was registered by the police as an unnatural death and remarked that the principal or authorities of the college had not done anything in their power to aid in the probe. It thus directed for the principal to be placed on indefinite leave till further orders.

In noting that a report could be called for by the state police under normal circumstances, the court noted the peculiar nature of the facts in this case and acceded to the parents’ prayer that any further delay would lead to the destruction of evidence.

The horrific act of evil not only took a daughter away from her parents but also a medical practitioner with ambitions to be the best: in her last note, which she penned to her father, she expressed her desire to become a gold medallist at the medical college.

The Indian Medical Association has called for a nationwide shutdown of hospital services as public fury intensifies.  The country’s largest grouping of medics with 400,000 members, said the 24-hour shutdown would be implemented on Saturday, affecting most hospital departments except for essential services.