RG Kar rape-murder case: 1 arrested; CM gives police Sunday deadline; widespread protests
Kolkata Police has arrested a man on the charge of raping and murdering a second-year postgraduate trainee doctor inside RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
The police are saying that the accused, Sanjay Rai, a civic volunteer (who, interestingly, according to sources, was not on duty at RG Kar), after raping the doctor on Thursday night, returned to his home. Waking up late on Friday morning, he washed the clothes he was wearing during the crime to destroy evidence. Unfortunately for him, his shoes, with blood stains on them, were found during a search.
The initial autopsy report stated that the victim was bleeding from her eyes, mouth and private parts. There were also injuries on her left leg, neck, right hand, ring finger and lips.
Asked about the involvement of any other person, the police said, as of now, there is only one accused. But police sources also said (to the news agency ANI) that three junior doctors and one house staff, who were on duty at the hospital on the night of the incident, have been summoned to Kolkata police headquarters, Lalbazar.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today met the family of the victim to express her full support for justice for her.
She gave the police a deadline of Sunday, August 18 to fully solve the case, failing which, she told the media, she might hand over the case to the central investigating agency, CBI.
She, however, said that the success rate of the agency is not high, citing a few cases from Bengal like the Tapasi Mallik rape-murder case (during the Singur Land Movement), the Singur and Nandigra cases and the Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel Prize stealing case.
Bengal BJP leader and advocate of Calcutta High Court Kaustav Bagchi has filed a petition in the High Court, demanding a CBI probe.
Meanwhile, earlier today, the principal of RG Kar Medical College, Dr Sandip Ghosh resigned. He has been transferred to National Medical College in Kolkata.
Dr Ghosh said he resigned because he was “getting defamed on social media”. He further said: “The deceased doctor was like my daughter. As a parent, I resign … I don’t want that this should happen to anyone in the future … .”
In protest against the rape and murder, widespread demonstrations are taking place Friday onwards in college and university campuses, both medical and otherwise. Today, protests are also taking place in medical college campuses in Delhi (by the Resident Doctors’ Association of AIIIMS), Chandigarh and Lucknow.
