Women protest in Kolkata’s Raja Bazar demanding justice for RG Kar rape-murder victim

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], September 9 (ANI): Several women on Sunday held a protest at Kolkata’s Raja Bazar area over the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital rape and murder case and demanded justice for the victim.

At the Jadavpur 8B bus terminus, a huge crowd gathered to protest over the incident and to demand justice for the victim.

In Kolkata, people from various walks of life held a protest on Sunday over the Kolkata rape and murder incident by forming a human chain.

The brutal rape and murder of a trainee woman doctor in Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital has sparked widespread protests in West Bengal and across the country. The victim was found dead in the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.

In Tollygunge, artists and technicians of the Bengali film industry held a protest march and demanded justice for the victim.

In Siliguri, people from the medical fraternity, activists and local citizens on Sunday formed a human chain to protest.

Earlier today, sculptors from Kumartuli, people with torches, BJP workers, and rickshaw pullers separately took to the streets to protest against the rape and murder incident. Notably, the protest has been ongoing for nearly a month.

Dr Tapas Pramanik, who was on duty in the Emergency Department at RG Kar Medical College on August 9, expressed his hope to ANI that the investigating agency will submit a transparent report leading to capital punishment in the RG Kar rape-murder case, which is under Supreme Court hearing.

“We are hoping that we will get a judgement that the investigating agency will submit a report maintaining the transparency and accountability of the culprit and there will be a capital punishment based on that… We are also hoping that there should be action against those doctors who are seen in videos tempering the evidence… There should be a punishment against those who are behind the vandalism that took place,” Pramanik told ANI.

The Supreme Court is set to hear the case of rape and murder at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on September 9.

In a related development, BJP MP Jyotirmay Singh Mahato on Sunday wrote a letter to the Director of ED requesting an investigation and arrest of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in connection with health scams involving Sandip Ghosh and the RG Kar Case.

TMC Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar on Sunday wrote to West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and offered his resignation from the post of MP.

“I have suffered patiently for a month since the terrible incident at RG Kar Hospital, & was hoping for your direct intervention with the agitating junior doctors, in the old style of Mamata Banerjee. It has not happened & whatever punitive steps that govt is taking now are too little & quite late. I think normalcy may have been restored in this state much earlier if the caucus of the corrupt doctors was smashed and those guilty of taking improper administrative actions punished immediately after the scandalous incident happened,” reads the letter.

The incident has sparked a war of words between the BJP and the state government, with the BJP demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

On Thursday, the victim’s family accused the Kolkata Police of attempting to offer them money while they were grieving with their daughter’s remains.

Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer at the G Kar Medical College and Hospital, has been arrested in connection with the incident.

On September 2, the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Dr Sandip Ghosh, along with three others, over alleged corruption and financial misconduct at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

Ghosh, the former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, has been remanded to 8-day police custody. The next hearing of the case will be on September 10.

On September 3, amid protests over the Kolkata rape and murder case, the West Bengal Assembly unanimously passed the ‘Aparajita Woman and Child Bill (West Bengal Criminal Laws and Amendment) 2024’.

The Bill introduces the death penalty or life-long imprisonment for rape by amending the relevant sections in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the new penal code.

On September 6, West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose referred the Aparajita Bill to President Droupadi Murmu for consideration.